DISTRICT NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10130, 5 January 1911, Page 6

DISTRICT NEWS.

(From Our Own Correspondents.) PAHSATUA. That the policeman's life is not a happy one was illustrated prettyforcibly in Pahiatua during the Christmas holidays. A well-known local gentleman, Mr John Hughes, notified the police that he had discovered (smelt, I should have said), an elderly man lying amongst the patch of green thistles in his paddock, in a deplorably filthy state, and surrounded by a number of empty, and one or two partially-filled, whisky bottles. Mr Hughes elicited from the recumbent figure that he had been paddocking there -for four days, had been without food of any description, and furthermore did not require any, and begged his interrogator begone. . Fearing the individual might succumb to exposure, Mr Hughes promptly rang up the police, and Constable Tanner and his assistant (Constable jaewitt) were speedily on.the scene. A horse rug was procured, and, getting to windward. of the '-'.object of their attention, that individual was quickly enrolled within its folds, deposited in Mr Hughes' motor car, and rushed to the watch-house. Arrived there the process of cleansing began, which consisted of hosing and: scrubbing, the clothes in the meantime having, to be literally cut off the man's,back. Out of a "sum of-money ,;found in the: derelict's possession .a--new rig out was' procured, and the' old age as he' turned out to -he;' was hauled before a local justice, convicted and: .discharged, ' and sent back to the dry district •from whence he came. The scribe is of opinion that Constable;' Tanner ..is' deserving of the Victoria Cross.