REMARKABLE STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 256, 19 March 1913, Page 5

REMARKABLE STORY.

, OLD MAX'S SAD PLIGHT. IVr Press Association. Auckland, March 17. ■Wlieit arrested at Mount Albert yesterday on a charge of vagrancy an old man named .Samuel Finlay told rather a remarkable story. A boy was passing a shanty in .Mount Albert road when the old man called to liini and asked him to get him some bread, at the same time stating that he had had his jaw broken. The boy went along to Constable McGlone, at tlie Mount Albert Police Station, and informed him of the okl man's plight. The constable visited the shanty; and questioned Finlay, who said he was 57 years of age, and that Jie was a native of Belfast. Some years ago he was ani officer on a. big steamer at Home. Subsequently he took .part in the SpanishAmerican war, and when in action at Havana he received' a sabre wound in the lower jaw which, since then,, had been a source of continual trouble to him. Later the old man said ho served on several of the. Union Company's steamers, and later still, worked on (I whaler. After leaving the whaler he, went digging gnm, 'and five days ago he found the shanty in which he was discovered. Continuing his narrative, Finlay, who is evidently a well educated and cultured man, said that he would rather starve than beg, and for five days he had subsisted on acorns which he had plucked from a tree near by. A heap of acorn husks in the shanty lent color to his statement. He.did not wish to leave the shanty, saying he would rather end hia days there. However, seeing that the man was evidently very ill, the constable arrested him on a charge of vagrancy so that he could receive proper attention. Constable Mefllone took him to his own house and tried to induce him to eat, but the old man refused and said he was too ill. Finlay was then brought into Auckland. lie was examined by Dr. Murray, who asserted that the man wtis suffering from the effects of a sabre wound in the lower jaw, also from want of food due to his circumstances, and to the fact that he could' not open his mouth to eat. Finlay was theji removed to the hospital.