Phoenix Briggs
Fined for Using Obscene Language
Phoenix was 26 years old when he was charged with using obscene language at the Hutt racecourse on Thursday 2nd February, 1882. He was bailed out and was to appear at the Magistrate’s court at 10:30am the next day. All the lawyers’ offices were closed on Thursday afternoon and so he could not obtain any legal advice except by approaching a lawyer who happened to be at home.
The next day he appeared in court ‘a respectably dressed young man’, defended by Mr Edwards. The witnesses for the prosecution stated that their party, on reaching a ditch at the racecourse had to pass over a small bridge. Phoenix, they claimed, rode his horse into the ditch causing it to deliberately splash the ladies and gentlemen. As Phoenix rode away, he was said to give an obscene remark.
The defence contended for a dismissal on the grounds that it had not been proved the racecourse was a public place. Failing that, Mr Edwards would apply for an adjournment to be able to procure witnesses. The case was adjourned and when called the next day, the Magistrate refused to hear any evidence for the defendant, convicted him and fined him 40s or in default 7 day’s imprisonment.
Phoenix was unable to pay the 40s and so was sent to prison. This treatment of Phoenix raised discussion in the newspaper about a fair trial. A number of gentlemen dissatisfied with the case gathered the 40s needed together and handed it to the mayor who organised for Phoenix’s release.
His next skirmish with the law was more minor, he was fined for allowing an animal to wander at large in 1882.
Phoenix was born in 1856 in Ireland. In 1881 he married Teresa Rooney in New Zealand and they had four children. He started out as a journeyman bootmaker and worked his way up to owning his own prosperous boot store. At first this was located on Riddiford Street at the junction with Normanby Street. But in 1890 he moved to 97 Adelaide Road and opened his ‘Boot Arcade’ on the corner of Broomhedge Street.
97-99 Adelaide Road at corner with Broomhedge Street. Demolished 1981. Charles Fearnley collection ref 50003-1431 courtesy of Wellington City Libraries.
In October 1891, Phoenix contracted typhoid. He fought the infection for two weeks but died on 27th October at Wellington Hospital. He was 35 years old. Phoenix was interred at Bolton Street cemetery. His infant daughter Elizabeth died in 1893 and was buried with him. Both were reinterred in the mass grave when the urban motorway was constructed. Their headstone stands by the main path on the Botanic Gardens side of the cemetery.
Teresa ran the boot business for a while after Phoenix’s death and later purchased the lease on the Okaramio Hotel between Blenheim and Havelock. She died in 1918 and is buried at Linwood Cemetery, Christchurch.
Bolton Street Plot: Public/R/38
The grave of the Briggs family at plot 38.R, Sydney Street Cemetery. It was photographed in the late 1960s by the City Sexton, P J E Shotter, prior to its being dismantled to make way for the Wellington motorway.
Shotter, P J E :Negatives and albums (with index) of graves in the Bolton Street and Sydney Street cemeteries, Wellington. Ref: 35mm-25541-21-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22889994
Evening Post advertisement, 18th April 1891.
Showing Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington to be widened and improved, 1900. Supplement to the Auckland Weekly News, 17 August 1900, p.6. Courtesy of Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections AWNS-19000817-06-02.
Briggs headstone, October 2024.