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Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 3, 18 November 1893, Page 10

We have heard of doctor’s certificates being granted for various causes—to excuse civil servants from duty; to enable a bank clerk to enjoy a holiday : to postpone a trial in the defendant’s interest by keeping away a witness, &c., &c., but they were all to the eftect that the absentee had contracted croup or the.measles, or had sprained a lung, or developed a spavin, or something of that sort. Now, when a man comes straight out, and sends a certificate from his physician to say that he cannot attend Court because he is suffering from alcoholism. that man excites our admiration for the ingenuous simplicity of his excuse, and our great hearts wells over with sympathy for the man who admits being on the spree so cheerfully and truthfully. An excuse of this character was handed in at the last sitting of the Supreme Court in Sydney; what the result was we have not heard as yet, but if the poor fellow is punished for contempt we shall certainly send him a cable of con- , dolence,