23/06/2026
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1895 started slowly, but on 20th March Nutt was again in trouble with the law, in the person of Constable Ryan. The Little River Court House was becoming a second home for the publican, and this time Nutt was charged with selling liquor to W. Cochrane, while Cochrane was in a state of intoxication. He was also charged with selling liquor to E. Turley, who was also showing signs of intoxication. And to round off the trifecta, Nutt was charged with βpermitting drunkenness on his licensed premisesβ, this charge applying to the drunkenness of Cochrane and Turley. For those of us who recall those carefree days of the mid-twentieth century, drunkenness may have seemed like the whole point of going to a pub. Not so in 1895, and certainly less so now. Bishop was the presiding stipendiary magistrate (SM), and was assisted by Coop, a justice of the peace. Nutt was convicted on the Cochrane charge, with the conviction to be endorsed on his licence. The Turley charge was dismissed through lack of evidence, but on the charge of general drunkenness he was fined Β£10 (somewhere north of $2,000), with the conviction also to be endorsed on his licence. The stipendiary magistrate noted that the decisions were his alone, with Coop a dissenting voice, believing that the charges had not been proven. Constable Ryan took this opportunity to again voice his general unhappiness with the way the hotel was now being run.
Nutt took strong exception to the convictions and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court in early April. The case aroused national interest, in that it would test the powers of stipendiary magistrates . When the hotelβs licence came up for review in June the magistrate noted that the appeal was pending, and that Bishop and Coop had disagreed on a verdict. Constable Ryan now gave evidence that, in his opinion, the hotel had never been better managed than it had been under Nutt, which seemed to somewhat contradict his earlier testimony. It was a difficult hotel to manage, said Ryan. And anyway, he felt that the two endorsements for the same offence were sufficient punishment and pointed out that a third would mean the cancellation of the licence. The committee adjourned the application to June 26th.
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**Image: William Wilson Smart, the Little River Constable just prior to Ryan, 1879-1881 . Photo courtesy of Lost Christchurch
