BROKEN BOTTLES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 36, 29 December 1944, Page 5

BROKEN BOTTLES

PASSING CARS AS TARGETS

INCIDENTS ON CHRISTMAS EVE

Due mainly to the faqi that on the tick of midnight the lights on the Strand were' switched! off suddenly, plunging the whole street, which was still well crowded* into darkness a number of regrettable incidents) took which to some ex)-, tent spoilt the town's otherwise clean sheet of good behaviour.

Buses from the country districts transported something over a thousand people into the. town, most, of them Maoris who came i'rdln Tc Teko, M.atata, Edgecumbe, Paroa and Poroporo. The handling of such a large number entailed the running of many trips to take t£em home. As a result when the lights were switched off there were many hundreds left milling round the bus terminal with nothing to do, but to make their own entertaiiiment. lhis was apparently carried out in diversified form according to the up of the an»d it was not long before passing car& became the targets of flying beer bottles which were hurled either at or in front of the vehicles.

One or two vehicles were hit whilst many of them suffered; punctures and cuts. One taxi company reports as many as fifteen punctures on the night due mainly to what occurred after the black-out. An eyewitness informs us that whilst he could give no indication of the n limber of bottles thrown, the roadway in front of the Rock was a mass of broken glass, through which it was almost impossible to drive a car without risk.

As the last return but did not leave, the Strand till 3.15 a.m. it will be, seen that many of the Maoris had to spend over three hours walking or sitting in the darkness before they could be taken home.