DRUNK IN CHARGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23499, 13 May 1938, Page 2

DRUNK IN CHARGE

DRAY DRIVER ARRESTED CONSTABLE'S AMUSING JOURNEY Capping day followed by the excitements of election day naturally had an effect on the general public’s appreciation of a joke so that when the driver of a dray and a self-con-scious police constable provided lunchgoers yesterday with an amusing Gilbertian situation in Moray place there was little wonder that laughs were numerous and witticisms unusually bright. As Gilbert wrote “ a policeman’s lot is not a happy one.” And this was brought home to a member of th< force when he was called upon to arrest an elderly man for being intoxicated in charge of a dray outside the Criterion Hotel shortly after 12.30 yesterday. The driver did not seem to mind very much, and he was led off without much fuss or protest. But the question arose: What to do with the horse and dray? There was only one answer, and so a stalwart “ man in blue ” took over the reins and proceed on his way to the Police Station. The shaggy old draught horse was not one that liked to be hurried, and the dray, too, protested at being taken to such a place as the Police Station. The constable was not inclined to take a seat in the dray, and so he walked alongside the rustic vehicle and talked encouragingly to the horse that seemed to say in its every movement “ There’s another day to-morrow ” But such a state of affairs was not to the driver’s liking He would have liked to have been anywhere but driving that Rip Van Winkel of 3 horse. It was so old, so shaggy, so ungroomed that it contrasted strangely with the immaculate uniform of the driver. But all these facts added to the crowd’s enjoyment and as the constable went with painful slowness on his way to the haven of the Police Station he was subjected to a running fire of good-natured comment And he took it all in good part ‘ls it Capping Day? ” asked one bystander, winking at his companions. “ No,’ - replied a comrade “ It’s the city's new mare! ” “ Wrong again,” called out a third spectator. “That’s the winner of the third race at Forbury being led home! ” And to the accompaniment ot these quips and sallies, the constable made his way down Moray place and along Stuart street, encouraging the docile steed with pats on its rump and trying to hide the self-consciousness he felt He was the most pleased man in Dunedin when the 17 minutes' journey was over and he had parked the dray in the station yard But it was. perhaps, a little 100 much when someone suggested as the incongruous procession was leaving the all-too-public Stuart street that the constable should be reported to Mr Semple for breaking the speed limit!