STRANGE SLEEPING PLACE

Evening Star, Issue 25046, 13 December 1943, Page 2

STRANGE SLEEPING PLACE

MAN CHOOSES OPERATING TABLE

The operating table in a hosp.ital is not a place in which one would choose to find oneself, but Arthur Francis JJlunton, a labourer, aged 40, was brought before Mr *H. W. Bundle, S.M., in the Police Court this morning because of his insistence in occupying such a position. It appeared, from what Senior-sergeant D. Vaughan told the Bench, that Munton, who had oome to Dunedin only on Saturday iniorning, had gone to the Public Hospital that night in a drunken condition and refused to leave the premises until the police arrived, when he was ejected, only to return in the early hours of yesterday morning. On this latter occasion he chose an operating table upon which to repose, and there he stayed until once more the police were summoned and he was arrested. Munton, said the senior sergeant, had declared he had drunk some carbolic acid, .but the prison doctor had found indications of alcohol only. A long list of previous offences'had been largely the result of defendant's drinking .habits.

To the Magistrate, Munton said he had been working in Taranaki for the ipast six or seven months and had not ■taken liquor during that period. Later, on the death of his mother, he had gone on a drinking bout, and his presence in the Hospital on Saturday was ■due to drink. In between times he was a good worker. Munton, the charge against whom ■was that of being unlawfully on premises at night, was convicted and ■ordered to come up for sentence if called upon within six months. He was ordered to pay medical expenses (£1 Is). -