HARD ON BABY

NZ Truth, Issue 1183, 2 August 1928, Page 7

HARD ON BABY

Wi Proposed Wetting Its Head, Too! (From "N.Z. Truth's" Te Kuiti Rep.) James Wi, who is a full-blooded Maori and not a Chinaman, as his name might lead one %o suppose, thought he would "put one over" the police when he decided to run the gauntlet with a small cargo of liquor. lUI, was, however, suspected, and " Constable Kennedy, one of the tiurly representatives of the law at Te Kuiti, turned the tables on him very nicely. Wi had been previously noticed to leave Te Kuiti by train and not return by the same conveyance,, although later the same -day had 'been observed back m the township not long after the train, }had arrived, on its return from the wet area northward. As it was proved that he did not return .by service -car on such occasions, Constable Kennedy slipped along to a. wayside station called Te Kumi, a short distance north of Te Kuiti, and. -there awaited the arrival of the slow down train on a recent afternoon when Wi left on one of his jaunts. A •' PREMATURE! As expected, Wi stepped, blithely off the train armed with a portmanteau, (Which Constable Kennedy promptly took charge of. . In it the officer found six bottles of best Scotch. WI, -.of course, was required to give an account of where he got so much \ liquor and as to his purpose m having Jit. r '/■ He told the police that he had got the liquor through a man m Hamilton, but inquiries failed to verify this, alk though it was ascertained that six ' bottles of the golden fluid were pur- '" chased that afternoon "at an hotel mTe I. ■ Awamutu. r When charged with keeping liquor I for. sale and with "bringing liquor into a';proclaimed area, Wi pitched a very ingenious yarn. He said he got three of the bottles at Hamilton and three at Te Awamutu. ; # He remarked that he was "hold-" fi ing well" that day as he had just - 1 been paid some money, and as i there had been a birth m the family he wanted to wet the baby's i head (laughter). They were having a bit of a kick-up at his f uncle's place, and that was why he t left the train at Te Kumi instead of continuing on to Te Kuiti..,:' I Quite a clever story, ;but the magistratex^in the King Country circuit is I* too onLa bird to swallow such amor- . sel. . 1 The suggestion that^he detrained at Te Kumi to dodge the police was L quite beside the mark to Wi. No such thought for a moment ever entered his innocent head. On the first charge defendant was Sflned £15 and costs, and on the second l)ie was convicted and ordered to pay the costs. As the police 1 confiscated the whisky, the baby's baptism (presumably was a jety dry «ffair.