Samuel James was in a state bordering on delirium tremens, known as the DTs, a severe form of alcohol withdrawal, when he arrived at Te Awamutu on an April Friday in 1882.
The 47-year-old bricklayer told James Devine that he had been drinking hard at Kihikihi. The DTs, also known as ‘the horrors’, had a range of ghastly symptoms including irritability, body tremors, hallucinations, heavy sweating, and seizures. Alexander Deally, a Te Awamutu tailor, gave the suffering Samuel a temporary home, but five days later he discovered him dead.
At the inquest the jury returned a verdict of death from excessive drinking. They were disturbed at the circumstances surrounding Samuels’s death and asked the coroner to add a rider to their verdict. They were of the opinion that death was accelerated by the reprehensible practice of publicans supplying drink to those in a state of intoxication.
Around this time a Te Awamutu police constable, whose time was spent mostly dealing with the outcomes of over-indulgence in drink, told local publicans that if there was any more excessive drinking, he intended to lock up the publican responsible. This was treated as a joke by some. Dan Kenny, Te Awamutu hotel publican, rearranged a part of his stables and built his own jail. When a customer overindulged, he would ply him with one or two more drinks until he became comatose. He then had him carried to the jail, where he was allowed to sleep it off. The place became known as ‘Dan Kenny’s Dead-house.’
Orders could be made prohibiting people from drinking, but these rarely worked. Suggestions to solve the ruin caused by the excessive use of strong drink included granting hotel licenses only to men of good character. Their establishments should have several rooms of good height and dimensions, including bedrooms, bathrooms, a coffee room, public sitting rooms, a smoking room, and a large general room furnished with small tables and chairs. Comfortable rooms of requisite height and dimensions for ladies should also be provided. Meals at reasonable prices should be available from the time of opening till that of closing. No bar, bar room, or barmaids would be allowed; all drinking would be done in the large room supplied with small tables and chairs, where tea and coffee should be as readily obtainable as wines, spirits or beer.
This would do away with sly drinking, shouting drinks and standing at bars. Licenses should be for colonial wine, and beer under certain strength – light wines and ales taking the place of the more fiery compounds. These measures would result in a healthier, more moral, sober people, but never gained traction.
Samuel James left hardly a trace except for the details of his death. He was quite destitute and was likely buried at Te Awamutu as a pauper.
