BARRETT BIFFS A BOBBY.

NZ Truth, Issue 250, 9 April 1910, Page 7

BARRETT BIFFS A BOBBY.

Crotchety Customer with a Crotcl

Henry Barnett is an old gentleman who lives m a one-roomed cottage m Cumberland-street, Dunedin, near the Bowline Green Hotel. He is about 70 ■ years old, and has to. help himself with a stick when he walks, which is never at a very cjuick rate. Some time ago lie was an inmate of the Seacliff Mental Hospital, and more recently was domicile:! at the Old Men's Home, but he couldn't lie kept there. At a quarter jiast cischt on Monday night Constable J. J Hodgson was walking along Prin-ces-street m plain clothes, when he met He: ry. .lust as the copper , got past Henry raised his stick and Ravi? him" a smac* on the back of .the.,' head; knocking.; . off his hat. Hodgson at once- /nabbed Henry and bundled him ioff-to the-sta^-tion m a cab ;At the station, - Henry ■ showed more bellicose feeling, offering to fight the whole of the force, 'arid the watoh^ouse-keeper m particular, to whom he shaped up. ' .*•' r In the Dunedin Police Court, oa Tuesday morning, before Magistrate.,. Widdowpon, it was shown that such : assaults were common wit 1 * ac*'"»ed»

[ The S.M. said he had seen Henry m the Pension Court, .and he .didn't seem to be responsible for his actions. . The secretary of the Benevolent Ini stitution suggested' that somebody must '■ have ■ aggravated Henry to make him ': act as he did. - [ The accused said he had biffed the bobfry because the latter had bumped | into him,* but the constable. denied havirng done so. Finally, Henry was remanded for medical examination, and was subsequently sent' back to the Mental Hospital.