WOMEN RIOT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 149, 16 February 1932, Page 7

WOMEN RIOT

FISTS AND PALINGS USED IN UNEMPLOYED CAMP BRAWL. SCRATCHING AND SCREAMING. SYDNEY, Saturday. Fighting, sereaming girls, using fists, palings and sticks, created bedlam in the Unemployed Women's Camp at Doonside last night in a struggle over camp equipment. Several were badly hurt, and black eyes, missing teeth and hair and swollen features mark most of the girls who participated. The riot was eventually quelled by Blaclctown police who were called by telephone. The fight started over an immediate division of material, after it had been decided to move the camp. Mrs. K. W. Street, wife of Mr. Justice Street, visited Doonside yesterday, and after she had left, some of the girls demanded that Miss Amos immediately hand over the camp equipment in equal shares. Miss Amos refused, and requested the girls to wait till morning. It is alleged that three girls immediately charged Miss Amos, and strilcing her, rolled her over in the dirt. Miss Amos got up, but was immediately felled with a big stick. The camp- is then said to have divided, and the affair developed into a brawl, in which most of the girls fought wildly, kicking, punching, clawing, and ripping out hair. Their screams, and the din of battle, roused a neighhour,- who brought the police to restore order. "Trouble Over Visitors." Miss Amos told the press that the reason for elosing the camp was that there had been trouble with some of the women over visitors to the settle-' ment. It was owing to this, said Miss Amos, that the decision was made to shift the camp to Glenfield. Miss Amos declined to diseuss the brawl, and said that she did not feel too well. She was limping from the beating she had received, and required medical attention. Mrs. Jessie Thompson, who is living in a tent with hef two daughters, Violetta (20), and Jessie (16), was confined to her bed. She said she had been dragged round the camp by the hair by six women, and belaboured with sticks. Mrs. F. Bull, who with hef little daughter, runs a poultry farm, said the trouble arose over a division of fencing wire. Miss Amos and her sister defended the wire, and refused to issue it, but were rushed by six or seven women, and a wild scramble ensued for its possession. "It was then they all started punching and fighting. It was just like a stadium for five minutes. In fact, it was better than a stadium! I never saw so many kicking and biting women in my life!" she said.