A GRAVE CHARGE AGAINST A PROHIBITIONIST.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 75, 26 September 1898, Page 6

A GRAVE CHARGE AGAINST A PROHIBITIONIST.

♦ TO THE EDITOK. Sir— l was in the Public Gallery at the House of Representatives late on Saturday night, and getting some information from a friend as to the proceedings previous to my arrival, when the orderly in charge came up aud_ said that if we did not stop talking we must go out. I have probably conversed in that gallery at least a hundred times before in the same undertone as on tins occasion without being called to order, and as not even the front row in the gallery was filled there was less occasion than usual for any annoyance. The interference was therefore particularly senseless and arbitrary, and the offensive hectoring tone of the officer was to match. Protests on my part, which at first were mild, did not mend matters, and the guardian of the law proceeded to threaten ejectment in verj r picturesque terms, garnished with oaths of which one' was of the obscenist possible character. My retort then was to threaten my assailant with proceedings for obscene language if it was persisted in, "but the rejoinder was more powerful still— viz., that I had better leave things alone beca.use I was under the influence of liquor! Leaving me stunned with this terrible charge the officer retreated, and I am still in^ doubt as to the proper way of dealing with him and it. But in the meantime it has vseemed best to take the public into my confidence and to assure them that. l was neither drunk nor intoxicated, nor what the Police Commission describe as "in liquor," nor "under the influence," nor anything short of 100 per cent, sober on last Saturday, or on any other day of my life. I was not evf^n suffering from influenza, or a "bad cold and cough," or "explosive bronchial catarrh"— all of which ailments have been found by recent Royal Commissions to produce effects which the uninitiated may mistake for intoxication. And qunere, Avhether a Royal Commission would clear my character if I could not set up one or other o£ these interesting defences. I must, therefore, throw myself on the mercy of. an indulgent public by making this frank explanation. ISo Royal Commission will be appointed to sit on me, but surely someone should sit upon toat orderly. I am, &c, A. R. Atkinson.

Mr. Allan Macdonald, at one time M.EL.R. for Poverty Bay, who mysteriously disappeared from a hotel in Melbourne some years since, and who has since been mourned as dead, was seen in another part ot Australia recently, looking the picture oi" health. A sensational occurrence is Reported from Malcotuku by the eorrespo» adent of the ' PeildiJig Star. When Thursday'su rsday's express from Wellington rounded the curve from the last cutting prior to enfr eriugthe station, on ilia crossing ahead thf, driver noticed a man lying across the trar ±, Alongside the track three other mtfa we re tumbling about in a maudlin, fashion, plainly indicative of drunkenness. There was then only about 20 ya.rds separating the group from the en gine. By combining their efforts, tjfos three men succeeded in clearing t&e line, but the distance by which the- engine grazed the man on the track is noi -worth speak ing about. Information has been, given to the Railway Department officials by those in charge of the train, and more may be expected to be heard of the affair. Mrs. Matthews, who was reported to have won £4500 > /jr the victory of Cravat in the Sydney Metropolitan Handicap held, with , r bus* Jiin(^ i wo sbares in the ticket, the Ihird s liare being hfjld by a miner named JSJeil, 0 on For years past Neilson has been a cod s ; 4 tent supporter of TattersalFs, but until , .c present occasion had met with no luck. xlp now intends taking a trip to his home in Norway after an absence of 50 years. '•' If they will put such duties as this on Magistrates when there is already more work than we can catch up with, the public generally must suffer," said Mr. Kenny, S.M., this afternoon, referring to another .sitting of the Compensation Court which he would have to preside over on Wednesday. A large number of cases had to be adjourned. The licensee of the Shamrock Hotel, Jas. Thos. Gray, was charged in the Magistrate's Court this afternoon with having sold liquor to a -child named M'Morris, under 13 years of age, for consumption off the premises. The prosecution originated through Constable O'Connell having seen the boy come out of the hotel at 9.10 last Tuesday night. It appears that the boy and his brother, who will be 13 next June, were sent for some brandy and peppermint for a child who was not well. As the case was interrupted by an indictable case it was adjourned for a week. The police require an owner for an old watch and chain found in the city. Richard Murphy, of Tory-street, grocer, to-da}' filed his petition in bankruptcy. The first meeting of creditors will be held next Monday. The final hockey match of the Wellington season was played at Island Bay on Saturday, when a team of lawyers vanquished one representing the world*