[Editor: These items, regarding a fight at a pub and the subsequent dismissal of two policemen, are extracts from the “Country post” section published in The Hobart Town Courier (Hobart Town, Tas.), 1 November 1828.]
Country post.
An affray has taken place in the public house of Benjamin Nokes, York Plains, Oatlands, which might have been attended with very serious consequences.
It appears that Mr. Nokes had issued a number of cards of invitation announcing that a Free and Easy would be held at his house on Tuesday the 21st instant. In consequence a number of persons of various character were assembled on the occasion, such as shepherds, stock-keepers and others.
About 11 o’clock at night, one of the constables, and a private belonging to the Royal Staff Corps, who had during the evening appeared to be very good friends, commenced quarrelling about some woman, when from words they fell to blows. Both men being at supper, and having knives in their hands, some wounds were inflicted, but not of dangerous tendency. The case is, however, undergoing a particular investigation.
Two of the Field Police constables of this District were dismissed from their station by the Police Magistrate here this day, for their conduct at Mr. Nokes’s inn, at the Cock and Hen Club on Tuesday night last.
Source:
The Hobart Town Courier (Hobart Town, Tas.), 1 November 1828, p. 2
Editor’s notes:
Free and Easy = a relaxed and informal convivial gathering, which may include drinking, eating, and smoking, at which singing and other informal entertainment is supplied by amateur and/or professional performers; a hotel, public house, or tavern which provides such gatherings (can also refer to: a bordello, brothel, house of ill repute, or an establishment where prostitutes may be hired; a hotel, public house, or tavern of ill repute, at which a significant level of sexual immorality commonly occurs or is allowed to occur)
See: “free-and-easy n.”, Green’s Dictionary of Slang
public house = hotel, tavern; an establishment where the main line of business is to sell alcoholic drinks for customers to consume on the premises (also known as a “pub”)
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs. The paragraphs of different subject matter have been separated by the insertion of a row of asterisks (* * * * * * *) which did not appear in the original.]
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