PRISON ISLAND HOAX.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 3709, 27 October 1927, Page 2

PRISON ISLAND HOAX.

AN EXAGGERATED REPORT. The story of the Rangitoto hoax, which was perpetrated in Auckland some time ago, has travelled as far as Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Like all such messages, it gathered force as it went. In the Hamilton Advertiser people were able to read of doctors, newspapermen and police officials racing to the island in fast launches, of theatres being turned into temporary hospitals, and of crowds waiting in torrential rain on the wharves. Here is the story:—

“The biggest hoax in the history of New Zealand has been perpetrated at Auckland, where telephone messages and flag signals were received from the prison on Rangitoto, the forest-clad volcano island in the Hauraki Gulf, four miles northwest of Auckland, that a serious explosion had occurred, and that many of the prisoners were dead, and others injured.

“Doctors, newspapermen and police officials rushed in fast motorlaunches to the island and searched the outskirts of the island for dead and wounded men without success.

“Ambulances and mortuary vans waited, together with thousands of people, on the wharf, to receive the men from the island, while the theatres were turned into temporary hospitals and fitted up with beds. The crowds on the wharves and jetties waited patiently in torrential rain until it dawned on them that the whole city had been hoaxed. Ther tempers were not pleasant, and the ‘joker’ is assured of a warm time when he is discovered.”