All or Nothing

Student Thomas Hendry stapled and set his penis alight recently but claims he is no masochist. He says he did it for the $NZ500 ($A396) cash prize to pay off his bills and buy some new clothes. Hendry's bizarre act of stapling his penis to a white pine crucifix, pouring cigarette lighter fluid over it and setting it alight, took top prize in Trader McKendry's Tavern's controversial promotion How Far Will You Go?

He walked away with $NZ500 cash and a $NZ500 bar tab. He spent the money paying his car registration, warrant of fitness, and registration for his bloodhound cross Puss.

The next day Hendry, 23, went to a students' free medical centre to have his burned and bruised member dressed. A fortnight later he says he has almost fully recovered and has no regrets about how far he went for the money.

The promotion, partly sponsored by New Zealand Breweries, involved patrons trying to outdo each other for the most lewd act. It is now under investigation by the police's liquor licensing section, which is concerned the bar tab prize went against the host-responsibility program it promotes among liquor licensees.

The contest has also embarrassed the Hospitality Association, whose Canterbury branch president, Marty Fuller, co-owns the tavern. Association national chief executive Bruce Robertson said it was an example of a good concept that went too far and got out of hand. 'I think it needed some boundaries and the premises concerned has certainly learned some lessons from it. It certainly did not anticipate or condone the outcome of where it ended up,' he said.

Hendry, a computer technician trainee with an $NZ8,000 ($A6,336) student debt, said he entered the contest because of the lure of cash. 'I'm a student so every bit helps. It was worth the money. It's all better now. I thought my act was pretty unbeatable and that's what I was aiming for.'

He disputed the bar tab was an irresponsible prize. He says he intends using it to buy lunch of burgers and pies every day. Hendry's act was inspired by an earlier contestant who pierced his penis foreskin with a safety pin.

'I thought I could do better than that.' Pinning his scrotum and foreskin to a block of wood with an industrial stapler, won Hendry his heat, but he decided to up the stakes for the final and use a burning crucifix. 'I got a bit carried away and used 18 staples, 10 through the scrotum. It was a wee bit tender the next day.'

Hendry said the act nearly turned to disaster when the flames began burning his penis and a fire extinguisher he had on standby refused to work.

'Luckily a guy threw his drink on it and that put out the flames.' Hendry, who has a tongue stud and was once pierced between the eyes, admitted some people had called him sick. Hendry's mother, Barbara, who was in the audience, had misgivings about the contest, but was pleased her son won. 'My son is a grown man and he wanted to do it,' she said. 'I'm just very relieved that he won. I would have hated for someone to go through all that and not achieve the object of it all.'