"DRUNKEN WASTER”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 18, 12 April 1927, Page 13

"DRUNKEN WASTER”

NEGLECTED FAMILY FATHER OF SIXTEEN CAUSTIC COUNSEL “He has sixteen children, six of them under the age of sixteen, and now he has the impertinence to ask for a variation of the order,” said Mr. Bryce Hart disgustedly, in the Magistrate’s Court this morning, when Walter Jenkinson stood in the witness-box to tell his tale of hardship. “What are you?” asked Mr. Hunt, S.M. “I used to be a blacksmith, but now I do anything I can get—collecting bottles . . .” “He’s geting bottles, all right—full bottles,” interrupted Mr. Hart. “He’s a drunken waster!” Jenkinson continued his story of no work and his inability to work if any came his way and quoted doctors, when his wife’s counsel broke in again. “He has babies ranging from two years of age.” “Now then, give me a chance,” the father of 16 protested. “I’ve got no lawyer. I can’t afford one.” It was mentioned that Jenkinson was sentenced to a month in January because he would not contribute toward the support of his wife and children. “He said that sooner than give a shilling toward his children he’d go to gaol,” Mrs. Jenkinson told the court tearfully. “Well, I’ll see what you are made of,” said the magistrate, when Jenkinson continued his protestations that he couldn’t pay. “I’ll suspend the arrears in the meantime, and sentence you to three months’ imprisonment. The warrant will be suspended as long as you pay £1 a week.”