RIOT ACT READ

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 17, 16 February 1942, Page 3

RIOT ACT READ

PANDEMONIUM AT SHOW

OCCURRENCE RECALLED

An occasion on which there was pandemonium in the old New Plymouth theatre and the Riot Act was read was recalled recently by a well-known New Plymouth resident in relation to the reported death at Napier of M>r John Payne, former M.P. for Grey Lynn, states the Taranaki Herald.

It harks back to the day when Cottier's Hostel, now the Criterion, was the hostelry at which most oif the important visitors to New Plymouth stayed. Mr Payne then, more than 40 years ag'o, was employed in the hostel as a barman. There cmnc to the town a Professor Kennedy, of Manchester, who staged a hypnotic demonstration as an entertainment in the theatre. MiPayne, who also hailed from Manchester, had met the professor on a former occasion, and he apparently did not hold a very high opinion of his skill as a hypnotist, which lie had challenged in the 1 Old Country. Desiring to again "meet' - the professor, Mr Payne arranged for a deputy to take his place in the bar that evening, and off lie went to the entertainment. An Intractable "Subject" The proceedings commenced in the orthodox way cf such entertainments, and when willing subjects were invited to submit themselves to the professor to be hypnotised, John Payne was among those who responded. Once on the stage with other subjects the erstwhile Manchester man began his opposition to the .demonstrator, to prove his inability to hypnotise. "It was not long," said the narrator of the story, "before pandemonium broke loose in the theatre. Members of tlie audience jumped on their seals, more rushed on the stage, until the whole house was in an uproar. Constable Lister, who wa.s ! Mu'ii in charge, look a hand in the: att'air rind he proceeded to rent: th'J IIio!- .Vet and to attempt to restore order. j <> ! b.e ine.'inlime he iheah-e pvn--r'U lor:-;, or Tehees. by a >-ui)leri'ug * managed to reseno Vh<* tu'innos. his patrons, and i.e r;/M ') : ;n 'Vie the a!,re a-rl hack under escort to his hole?, wh'rb, by the wiiv, was the sairr at which his challenger was engaged as a barman. Tie showed physical signs of having been hand letin no gentle manner and he quickly left the town. Mn* Payne was said to be an ambitious young man and while engaged as a barman at the hotel he spent his leisure time in the study of shorthand, in which he afterwards became proficient. In later years he had been identified with the picture entertainment business in the Hawke's Bay district.