RIOUTOUS MOB ON FERRY

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5351, 14 November 1928, Page 4

RIOUTOUS MOB ON FERRY

SURREY HILLS GANG.

YOUTH BATTERED.

A riotous mob qf about fifteen men took charge of a crowdqd ferry running from Clifton Gardens to Circular Quay, about 5 p.m., and caused a panic among the passengers (says a Sydney paper).

The men, who are sa*d tjq be members of a gang known as the Mascot Spiders, made a concentrated attack on four, or five youths with whom they had had an altercation at a picnic at Clifton Gardens. Th© mob chased the youths all over, the ferry, and one youth was temporarily knocked ou\ Another, who appeared to be singled out for sye.enl attention, was knqcked down and kicked. He. was badly knocked about when a couple of the; members of the cre;w rushed upstairs and rnanged to rescue him.

The injured land was taken downstairs, and vzhqn the mob followed menacingly he was escorted by one of the members of the crew into the engine-room.

A stalwart enginec;, stood on guard and. rioters did not dare fallow. By that time the boat was approaching Taronga Zoo wharf, and the mob gathered at the gangway. As socjn as the boat drew alongside the wharf they dashed off, refusing a deckhand’s demand for their fare or tickets. ROW AT DANCE. Tq trouble started at Clifton Gardens, w’her.e the Surrey Hills Orctar of Foresters was holdin|g a picnic. Five youths attended a dance in the big. hall on the picnic ground, although none of them was with the main picnic, party. As they were coming out one of them, it is statqd, wa,s set upon. A melee ensued, but a sergeant and a constable who were on duty at the ground managed to restore order. Several men we?'e ordered off the griund, and caught the ferry to Sydney. The sergeant advised the captain of the fe;try that if he had any trouble to blow four blasts on the whistle as he; was approaching the Quay. The boat had not g.one far when the youth who had been set upon in first, place was accosted by the mob which had been involved in the trouble; at Clifton Gardens. The youth was challenged to fight, and when his four companions took his part they were all sqt upon. WOMEN SCREAMED.

The first trouble occurred on the Ic.wer dock. There was shocking display of bad language and women screaming, as the mob chased the, yrn.ths up and' down t.hq stairs, until a couple of them were cornered on the top deck. One of the youths, it is stated, knew sO|me of the members of the gang, but the one who was singled qut in the first instance, and who ,was brutally kicked when down, stated that they were strangers to him.

When the boat approached Circular Quay the captain signalled for the police, and cpnstables rushed qn to the wharf. Three men were, stopped going off the boat, but flhey soon satisfied the police that they had nothin|g tq do with the affair. The. youth who had been sa brutally treated was acco,mpanied by one of the constables back to the Zoo wharf, in thq hqpe that the assailants were waiting there for the next boat. There was no sign of them, however'. It is believed they boarded, a tram and returned to Sydney by way of Milson’s Point.