ARREST OF 27 PEOPLE IN AUCKLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 155, 27 March 1939, Page 11

ARREST OF 27 PEOPLE IN AUCKLAND

Raids On Two Houses LARGE CROWD WATCHES POLICE ACTIVITY By Telegraph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, March 26. Twenty-seven persons, three of them women, were arrested by the police late on Saturday night when they raided two adjoining houses in Hobson Street, opposite the Trades Hall, and seized quantities of liquor. In spite of the lateness of the hour and the fact that the raids occupied something like 1J hours, about 500 people crowded the roadway till Black Maria had left with, its final, load. The arrested men and women spent the weekend in the cells and will appear on varying charges before a magistrate tomorrow. A party of 10 police officers raided both premises simultaneously shortly after 11 o’clock. They bad little difficulty in securing entry and scarcely before the occupants were aware of it, every means of escape had been. closed. One man happened to be looking out of an upstairs window as the police entered the front door of one bouse. He clambered out, evidently with the intention of making his escape along the top of a veranda, but he capitulated when he saw a constable waiting for him on the road below. As in all raids of this nature, the police thoroughly examined every part of the two houses. The new Black Maria was brought into commission and it made three trips before those arrested and the poli.ee officers were all at the central police station. Not till then did the large crowd of curious onlookers disperse.