Shotover Bill.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 August 1913, Page 3

Shotover Bill.

BEFORE THE BENCH. (Written for The llorowhenua Chronicle.) Not a friend could he see as lie stood at the bar, King Dick was in heaven, Sir -Joe was afar, and he gazed on the bench with an inward quake, for liberty, fortune and fame were at stake. What is lie. charged with? Breaking the peace, disorderly, drunk, and resisting the p'lice; a hooligan playfully knocked otV his hat, and he up with his stick and he woodened him flat. For a man of his years he's a very bad lot, and I hope that your Worship will give it him hot!" "A pensioner!*' Yes sir, and ratty at that : a couple of drinks and he sings likt a cat: he has seen better times in his day, it appears, but his coat is in rents, and his rent's in arrears !" "Any former convictions' ""Well none that we know, but he's been in the country a long time ago. That scar on his cheek was a shot in the jaw; they say he was here at the time of the war: an expense to the State, when lie ought to be dead- I d give him a month sir." "Come! hold up your head !" 'Twill look better, indeed, when 'tis decently cropped, and his pension, your Worship, had better be stopped." "Now, prisoner, stand up and answer the charge! Any reason to state why you should be at large! - ' debauching yourself at the country's expense: that can't be allowed under any pretence. Your pension half gone for the beer that you've mopped; the constable says that it ought to be stopped !" The old man stood up, and he shook his grey mane, and he glared on the cop with contempt and disdain. "Youi Worship, for fifty long years, and the rest, I've battled the l'ig islands doing my best; their forests, Vve rifled, their gorges .I've mined, till through age and fhrough hardship my health has declined. Now, if that Gov'nicnt pension that's granted to me, in the light of an old age compassionate fee, with its puerile conditions, and meagre and bare, depends on the nod of that kaisernnut <lu re: these hands cannot touch it, I'll go off to (|Uod, or die in the gutter, so help me God. "Outrageous! Insulting! You've played your worst card, your pension is stopped sir, and one month's hard !" "Let others go down on their knees if they will: but you won't find a 'smooger' in Shotover Bill !" •TACK YTXCKNT. Levin, 7th August, l!)K>.