£600 DAMAGE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1929, Page 5

£6OO DAMAGE

CEMETERY VANDALS A MELBOURNE RAID SYDNEY, Dec. 12. Spasmodic acts of vandalism which have occurred in the Melbourne General Cemetery within the last few years reached a climax the other night, when a systematic raid was made on nearly 200 graves and damage estimated at between £SOO and £6uo was caused. I lie vandals, who, judging by tlieii footmarks, danced on the graves, wantonly smashed about 100 glass wreaths on the graves, and broke 50 marble urns on the monuments. Some of the urns that were on the monuments costing £3OO and £4OO were smashed into two or three pieces.

Plants were also pulled up from the graves, some of which had only recently been attended to by expert gardeners at a great expense to the relatives, Marble quartz on the graves had been picked up by the vandals am thrown at the monuments, and the wreaths and scores of monuments were broken Even graves which had obviously not been attended to for years were marked out for.desecration by the gang, solitary glass wreaths that had been sunk into the ground being broken to pieces. Host of the destruction was done over a large area in one corner of the cemetery—that furtheresl away from the main entrance. It is thought that the destruction was the work of either youths of the larrikin element or maniacs. Those responsible bad evidently made their plans well beforehand, and had armed memselves with heavy bars. . They gained admittance to the cemetery by breaking several iion bars of the fence and then squeezing through the opening. They worked systematically through the rows of graves, and they followed a wide asphalt path for some distance leading to the valuable monuments, which were singled out for particularly vicious treatment. x .eces of the broken urns were thrown at some of the graves, and a broken pickle bottle that had been hurled at one monument was found at the foot, of it. Officials of the cemetery, who were greatly concerned at the incident, immediately sought the aid of the police, who were informed that the vandals had been causing trouble in the cemetery for years. It was not uncommon for' iron railings to be found broken from the fence. The mob element in tne park close to the cemetery is particularly strong. They are an irresponsible lot who stop at nothing in order to secure the class of “fun which most appeals to them, such as the deseration of graves ana tne «ovmeeting of the tennis players who have courts in an adjacent park. These tennis players were attacked one night not long ago by a senseless mob arnicu with fence palings. On that occasion it is said that, they fired some shots—just by way of a joke.