Eight months before, Brown had been sentenced to one month's imprisonment with hard labour for begging in Queen St.
Half a century on, and nothing had changed. A letter to the Auckland Star, October 1, 1923: "Sir, I am a visitor from Wellington; I have been here only a week, but during that time I have been stuck up by beggars for money by the score every time I go down town. Why don't the police make these loafers work? I have never seen such a lot of stiffs, bums and beer cadgers as you have in Auckland."
Jump 10 years and the only thing that's changed is the offence. We find Harry Griffiths, 55, pleading guilty to being "an incorrigible rogue in that he placed himself in Queen St for the purpose of begging alms". A repeat offender, he is locked up for three months. Ditto for James Downey, 66, with 105 previous convictions.
These days there are no laws criminalising or regulating begging and what do we find? Begging has all but disappeared. Which might suggest that decriminalising a social problem has actually worked. At present, Auckland Council says it averages just five complaints a month, plus two or three a month in Manukau where there's reportedly a spike in youth panhandling.
The planned bylaw has been prompted by just three organisations. Heart of the City, the multimillion-dollar, rates-funded CBD business lobby group, Smith & Caughey's, the top people's department store, and the Onehunga Business Association.
Wilf Holt of the Auckland City Mission points to a hard core of around just 20 beggars in the CBD. Perhaps an easier solution would be for Smith & Caughey's to offer them a fancy uniform and a job, using their gift of the gab to encourage new customers into the store. And surely Heart of the City could live up to its name.
Instead of recriminalising begging, a better guide is the Homeless Action Plan the old Auckland City Council initiated in 2005 in co-operation with the Committee for Auckland, Auckland District Health Board, Auckland City Mission and Lifewise. Out of this emerged the New Beginnings Court, a specialist court to deal with minor crimes committed by the homeless. It sets up life plans for offenders, helping them break addictions, finding them places to live, helping them back into society. In its first two years the results were impressive.
The beggars are not necessarily homeless, or addicts or criminals. But sitting out on the cold pavement in mid-winter, with a handwritten sign and a cap, is surely a hint to a caring community to offer the person a helping hand, not a kick in the backside.
In Monday's column I referred to a front-page story in the North Shore Times following North Shore MP Maggie Barry's 2011 election victory which reported, "The morning after National's resounding victory she sent a strong message to Auckland mayor Len Brown, saying there would be a CBD rail link before a second harbour crossing 'over our dead bodies'."
Ms Barry has referred me to a subsequent story in the local paper which says, "Ms Barry says she wants to make it clear she was referring to a rail link from the city to the airport in a North Shore Times story last Tuesday."
The story added that as far as the city rail link tunnel was involved, Ms Barry said that until a business case was made "I am not against it, but I am not for it".
