"WORLD-SHAKING WATERLOO."

NZ Truth, Issue 165, 15 August 1908, Page 6

"WORLD-SHAKING WATERLOO."

North -on Nap. Drives Men to Drink.

The alarming increase m the drink bill of Christchurch within the past twelve months, as shown by the ipolice report, is< '. probably due to the disgust of sane; persons at the snuffle and frenzied yell of the prohibitionists m view of the local option poll. If anything will induce, a man to drink it is the unsurpassable cheek .of the mentally-malforme.a persons who say he shall not drink. This paperdoesn't, defend the irresponsible; "jag" ; which caused the destruction of much valuable property, including .a church fence, m Christchurch recently, but it does say that 'such extreme ' case£ of beeriness are the natural accompaniment of intemperance of speech m. the qj;her extreme. Intolerance creates transgression and excess m scurrilous denunciation from the platform breeds excess m ,beer swiping. On the evening of August 3 a crowd of young men went suddenly mad m the vicinity of Oxiord-terrace and started to pull down the fences thereabouts. They might have gone nome peaceably, had not the'. Baptish : Church reared its arrogant brick walls' before their gaze and inspired them with frenzy. Perhaps the. spirit of the blood-thirsty lecture,

"WORLD-SHAKING- WATERLOO,'' delivered m Chris tchAirch by Parson J. J. North, of the dipping persuasion, still hovered telepath^tically about the atmosphere and prompted .the deed, but the young men tore at the church fence and inflicted damage assessed at 9s. Then they turned their attention to other properties m the neighborhood, and mutilated the fences of J. 0. Maddison, Mrs, Amy Brazier, A. Nare, and ?/. Kees.' The irrev. gentleman's vivid word-picture of Napoleon's last square going down before the mounted British and Prussian slaughtermen was frightfully illustrated on the pickets and palings, and signs of strenuous battle were m evidence next morning. Immediately, after the battle two persons named Edward Kerr and Ernest James Mills were arrested by Peeler Deeby,>.aud protested their innocence with indignation next day. Lawyer, fijissid^ appeared for Mills/ wh« is

junior partner m a milk business, and Kerr bad the. benefit of the same lawyer's championship, as the cases were heard together. Th« evidence connecting the two persons with the damage was meagre and practically confined to one man. Mrs Jane Maddison is a middle-aged woman with a contralto voice, who was alarmed by sounds of revelry m the street shortly after nine o'clock on tho' third, so that she went down and discreetly locked the gate. She noticed four young men at the time, but couldn't identify them. At a few minutes to ten the crash of battle Teacher her ears, and fearing for the safety of her property, she arose and slipped on something. Throwing up a window she / 7 OBSERVED A DREADFUL MAN inside the gate, the lock of which had been broken. "What do you want?" she asked, shrillyi "Is this (hie) Mr Maddison's place (hie) !" he asked. "Yes, it is," she replied... "I (hie) only wanted to .speak to him," explained. "Well, you can't speak to him,?' snapped the lady, her prudence, overcoming her curiosity. She didn't recognise any of the roystcrers. The evidence of Amy* Brazier, yvjlliarh Rees, and William Thomas Fletcher related to thr damage, "but Charles Mackie, who had been attending a bunstrug-. gle m the Tabernacle noticed three men m the* vicinity when leaving the prayer factory. The roar of the battle was also borne upon the frosty 'air to his ears as he went, and retuirning . hesaw. a man trying to do the Samson trick _with tlie church gates. - Threatened with arrest, the man ran a way,, and Mackie also retired. He couldn't recognise the meneither. . . . I<j A person named Nolan happened to be at the" Chester-street corner when he heard "tbrec men arguiag about fight — >• probably the historic one pourtrayed ,hyi the cantankerous Wellington parson. Thci^ three illustrated / their remarks on the. church fence, and Nolan fetched Pesler Beeby from Barbadocs-street. One of the , trio, a tall, thin "person, got away.'r Beedy grabbed Kerr and handed him over, to Nolan, while he went m pursuit of Mills, who tried to .cut out 220 yds m 21sec. Mills biffed the bobby, who; plugged his victim on. the; countenance' and arrested him. The peeler corroborated these statements, arid, when confronted with signs of war on Mills* face, explained that he had plugged the young man "m self defence. ' Mr Cassidy called Mills, who is a most 1 sober person, generally speaking, and he related his experiences of the evening m the city, the programme .being an. encore of onjj item, '

' . "FILL 'EM' UP AGAIN." He was with a painter person, and the two got so ; enthusiastic discussing nothing m particular that they were refused •beer at the Foresters' Arms and proceeded to the ; ,\Star „ and Garter, where the licensee regarded them with the cold eye of disfavor and told them to go away. Mill's recollection 1 of tilings, was hazy m the extreme, •' but he, was con^ vinced that he was' not mixed up. m any rampageousness like the Battle of Waterloo,- and as Kerr .was with him, he believed that individual was, also a victim of circumstances, like the late lamented Napoleon, whose downfall is popularly thought to be due to a person, named Bill A-dams. > , '

J.'sP. Gapes and Forester, --however, imposed a fine of 20s and costs, arid ordered the pair to'niake/good the damage, which was extensive. '