LOCKED IN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 37, 31 December 1943, Page 5

LOCKED IN

MAORI IN PICTURE THEATRE

DRAMATIC MIDNIGHT RESCUE

The management of the local theatres experienced what anight be termed in ail thoroughness an unrehearsed double event of rather stai tling magnitude on Christmas Eve. The prolonged sessions possibly had something to do with if,, but certainly it was not bargained lor by the theatre stall', who after going carefully through the. interior found first one sleeping Maori youngster, and actually succeeded in locking another in. The story goes something like tJiis. When the crowd had dispersed from the. Regent, the attendants were amazed to find a child (a giO) sound asleep in one.of the Iront. rows. Parents or relatives had simply disappeared. The kiddie when awakened, gave, one gasp, and boltcd without explanation. The theatre was then duly locked up by the

amused officials. The episode might have ended there, had. not the Maori Hair for theatre restfulness been further ex-

emplified by a yet more telling incident about 12. HO a.m. on the same evening. On this occasion the

tired manager was enjoying a quiet pick-me-up of colfee and sandwiches when he was- informed that a Maori scrummage had formed outside the Grand Theatre. Quickly downing the dregs lie hurried across; the street, just in time to see the hero of the piece being handed across the iron grating by a couple of rescuers, who had already broken open the doors in their enthusiasm.

Xow the inner story in this instance was that a Maori youth of

welve summers; had; fallen asleep, iot iii the seat, mark yoU(, but undci t. When the locker-up made his

■ountls. he both saw and heard noth-

ing (remarkable!) However an hour or two after the programme; had concluded young Hori, awoke to the startling fact that he was alone in a gloomy forbidding interior, "which only echoed back hollowly, the whimperings of his own frightened exclamations, ('.nine the. horrid realisation that he had been locked

in and completely forgotten by his kindred, some of whom are possibly blowing those distant whistles and yodelling callously in the. main street. Thereupon he yelped unreservedly, and. having found his way to the front entrance proceeded by dint of rattling and vocal entraties to plead his deliverance. We have it on good authority that sixty-live Maoris promptly gave car and by means of shouted advice and promises of what Santa Clans was going to bring, managed to pacify the prisoner. A one-man rescue party next mounted the iron grating and to the cheers of the onlookers' proceeded to wrench the lotto oil', whereupon our hero stumbled out rubbing tearful eyes and making the iirst of. premature New Year resolutions. The little drama would have closed there and then but for the arrival of the manager ayho pointed sternly at the busted lock. However all was amicably arranged when the j rescuer, still basking in the reflected glorv of mob worship, modestly undertook lo defray all the costs involved in replacing the damaged entrance. Another cheer went up, and he was borne happily away to tlu; touching reunion in which young Mori was duly, and wilh mingled reinonsta:ice and delight, restored to the bosum of his family.