METHYLATED SPIRITS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19885, 11 March 1939, Page 8

METHYLATED SPIRITS

DRINKERS IN WAIROA TWO MEN BEFORE COURT (Spoclal to din JTorald.) WAIROA. this day. "You have got yourself into a very bad state, and for your own sake you will have to stop it," stated Mr. V. E. Winter, J.P., to Edward Collins, alias Thomas Lean, aged 62, when he appeared before Messrs. V. E. Winter and J. Corkill, J.P.s, in the Wairoa Police Court yesterday on a charge of being an idle and disorderly person in that he had insufficient lawful visible means of support. The accused was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment in the Napier gaol, and on a charge of having been found drunk in a public place he was convicted and discharged. Constable J. McAlpine stated that the accused had been in town for about a week. He had been sleeping in an old shed at North Clyde at the back of the hotel and had been drinking methylated spirits. The bench could see for itself the state he was in. He was in a filthy condition and in a very bad state through drinking methylated spirits. The accused went round the town sharpening scissors, but he did not seem to

be doing any work. He had been before the court before. In sentencing the accused to seven days' imprisonment, Mr. Winter stated that it would give him a chance to pull himself round and receive proper attention. A third offender for drunkenness, John Gordon Scoullar, alias Schoullar, aged 54, was fined £l, in default 48 hours' imprisonment. Constable McAlpine told the court that the accused was arrested at t North Clyde and, in company with another man, had been drinking methylated spirits. He understood the accused was a good* worker, but once he got into town and started drinking he could not stop.