AN INTELLIGENT VAGRANT.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 610, 16 April 1878, Page 2

AN INTELLIGENT VAGRANT.

Under this heading the Post reports the following as having occurred in the Wellington Resident Magistrate's Court : "■Michael John O'Connor was charged with vagrancy. Sergeant Smith stated that the man was an old offender. He left the town some time since, but recently returned, and had been wandering about doing nothing. On Saturday morning lie came to the Polico Station and asked to be locked up.— Prisoner : Slow do yon define the word 'vagrant'?'—lnspector .\iv.hi.v>i! :• A. loafer.—Prisoner: Is it a criminal charge ? —Mr. Crawford : Yes, with summary jurisdiction. Prisoner : 1 fail to see that it is a crime to be in i!l----liealth, to suffer poverty, and tuhounabk to obtain employment. It that be called justice, it is unworthy o£ a so-called civilised oonmimv.ly.. -Mr. Crawford : The Legislature decides that.; it is nof a matter for my consideration. it will give me 110 satisfaction to send yen to prison to lie supported at the expense of the public ; but i am afraid T must commit you that you may have lodgings. Prisoner: Listen (o my tale, your Worship, and then say whether Tam a vagrant. Jam subject io ; epileptic lbs. fend that has been tiecause of my in t.ho world. I am a member (\ si.J Koval College of London. f have nothing! wherewith to commence practice, and my! j infirmity would prevent me properly attending'to a practice if ! had one. When l was last released from gaol i endeavored to stow nivKilf away in a ship to get io Melbourne, beoause I had no money L; p.-.v my passage ; but I was discovered. "My friends are all in Midi bourne. V'<r some lime T was in the Lunatic Asylum there, but, they sent me to Wellington, paying my passage, and giving me Li in my pocket, All the time J was in Wellington. I was not three iv»nsecntive days out of gaol, for iu. sooner was 1 let out than I was put i:i again. I weid, up io Nels'-n, trr.d was there for three month;;,, the greater part of the time being apcuf, of course, in gaol. Tin; i Governor of the gaol wished to get rid of i mo. 31 e gave me a. great deal of advice, of which lie was liberal, as it cost him nothing, and paid my passage to Wellington, advising me to re.presen.fc my case to the Minister of Justice, to endeavor to got a pasriayu to Melbourne. —Mr. Crawford :• tint now yon apply to be put in ! gaol.—Prisoner : Yes, to call the attention of the Minister of Justice to my case. Inspector Atchison : Your Worship is well aware of the spirit prevailing among the medical men in the town, and if the prisoner were not a drunken loafer, they would help him.—Prisoner■; T am not a drunkard, and hp.vo not been for nine months.—Mr, Crawford : But you were ycry frequently convicted before that time.—Prisoner: But, I do not drink now. That I was once bad is no proof that I am bad now. Vagrancy ! and a crime. Why, the \uicivilised Hottentots would scorn to so disgrace the sacred name of justice ! Mr. Crawford : Tf you are discharged will you try to find some employment,-—Prisoner : Yes ; I suppose. I must even sink to be a lumper on the wharf.—Mr. Crawford : Well, I will dismiss von with a caution this time.