POLITICAL DEMONSTRATION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 201, 2 September 1874, Page 2

POLITICAL DEMONSTRATION.

BURNING OF EFFIGIES. The Auckland Evening Star gives a long account of the burning in effigy of the Premier and others recently in Auckland, and thus concludes :— “ By the time the procession had reached the Barrack square proximity to the Premier had led the crowd to undue familiarity with Mr. Vogel, and several had been lighting matches and poking them against his clothing. At lengththeseamateurattempts disturbed the order of the programme, for the fire reaching the combustibles in his inwards the Premier was immediately in a blaze. The drapery on the horse also caught, and for a moment or two there was a risk of the animal being burned. With difficulty they severed the couplings, and the blazing minister was flung to the ground on his back. The procession proceeded, leaving Mr. Vogel to his fate, Mr. Luckie still looking back through his eye-glass, as if in regret that in death they should thus be divided. On Mr. Vogel touching earth he was rushed on by the crowd, who struggled around his blazing form. At length one caught him by the arms, and another by the hindleg, and, like a rocket or a shooting star, the Prime Minister was seen soaring heavenward, coming down on the sward with a thundering thud. Mr. Vogel burned well, and long after all his followers had been consumed a crowd stood around his blazing remains, the fumes whereof they persistently affirmed were distinctly sulphurous. After unshipping the Premier the procession proceeded, but it was soon apparent that the impatience of the crowd, manifested by sticks and other missiles projected at the heads of the figures, would not enable the conductors to carry out the original plan. The gallows, with ropes and hooks, were among the furuishingsof the funeral car, but lambent flames running up the coats presently showed that the amateurs were again at work, and that the legislators must be taken to earth, or the destruction of the equipage would be the result. Already the form of Mr. Wood was wreathed in blazes, and efforts were made io detach him from the fixings. He preserved a sublime indifference,

and when dismounted and borne aloft in procession, supported by two bearers, each holding a leg, he moved not a muscle. At length he was seen shooting skyward, the dripping tar making it unpleasant to his bearers. Mr. Buckland was brought to earth wrapped in fire. He burned with extraordinary rapidity, so nobody durst go near him. In a few minutes he was consumed. Mr. Creighton, after being battered a bit, was left to burn out in a corner. Mr. Luckie kept his eye-glass up to the last, and even when his head was knocked off by a backhander from someenthusiastic admirer of a free press, the right band bore aloft the eye-glass opposite to where the eye ought to be. Mr. Luckie burned slowly and died hard. The last dying speech of each, as well as the gallows and ropes, was in readiness, but owing to the earnestness of the amateur assistants the after part was curtailed. Crowds gathered around each blazing form, which from time to time was flung aloft to the no inconsiderable risk of the spectators. At length, after three ringing cheers for Mr. O’Rorke, and three for the Evening Star, the crowds dispersed.”