QUEEN STREET LOOTED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 199, 15 April 1932, Page 5

QUEEN STREET LOOTED

HUNDREDS INJURED IN PREARRANGED OUTBREAK OF VIOLENCE FIERCE B.ATTLE AT TOWN HALL LAWLESS CROWDS SMASH SHOP WINDOWS DURING RIOT NAYY AND FIRE BRIGADE CALLED QfJT Apparently taking advantage of a demonstratio.n against the proposed wage cpts by em|ployees of the Post and Telegraph Department, which included a parade up Queen Street, Auckland, last evening, many hundreds of men qnd women, qmong whom was a large number of lawless youths, started a violent demonstration in the vicinity of" the Town Hall which rapidly daveloped into the worst and most destructive rioting and looting- in the history of the Dominion. The available police proved quite inadequate to control the mobs and a naval detachment and fire engines, which were summoned to their aid were also unable for some time to control the situation. After over two hours strenuous efforts, including a fi'ercp fight between police and hoodlums in the vicinity of the Town Hall, the rioters were finally subdued, but not befyre practically every shop window in Queen Street had been smashed and its contents looted. Hundreds, including police were injured in the fighting, some i seriously, and many arrests were made.

(Press. Assn. — By Telegraph — Copyright). ; AUCKLAND, last night. Appalling rioting and looting, in which hundreds of men and women participated, occurred in Queen Street to-night. : Fierce fighting broke out between a section of the rioters' and the police in the vicinity of the Town Hall. Stones and fence palings were freely used, and hundreds of people were treated at the Auckland hospital for minor injuries. Three policemen were seriously injured, and at least three civilians are in hospital suffering from concussion. At least 20 arrests were made. Practically every shop window in Queen Street was smashed and rifled. Jewellery, clothing, bottles of spirituous liquor, boxes of cigars and pipes were removed by bands of lawless youths and men. The total damage to Queen Street shopkeepers is estimated at about £100,000. The city's main street resembled nothing so much as an earthquake or war-stricken area. | Bitter Fighting The fight outside the Town Hall was bitter and sanguinary. The police who had been controlling a procession and guarding the entrances to the hall, suddenly found themselves involved in a furious melee. Batons were used liberally by the mounted police and by reinforcements of foot police. Fire engines and naval detachments from H.M.S. Philomel were summoned, but even these forces were unable to ffiep control over the many bands cf rioters. who marched up and down Jueen Street stoning windows and lootin'g. Disorder was rife from 8 j'clock until nearly 11 o'clock. The origin of the trouble is obscure. The Post and Telegraph employees leld a procession in Queen Street at i.30 as a preliminary to meeting in ha Town Hall to protest against the ffoposed wages cut. Uninvited unemiloyed formed a procession behind hem, and the crowd poured out of he Town Hall and joined the crowd mtside. Youths Bent on Destructipn Shortly before 9 o'clock thje crowd farted to surge down Queen Street. ihe first wave consisted mainly of ouths bent on destruction and looting hop windows after the windows had ieen smashed. Some used their feet ind others used stones thrown with leliberation from the street. Within a few minutes the mob was ntoxicated with the spirit of destrucion. At each yard down the street he looting increased and by the time he lower section of Queen Street ad been reached, groups were openly eizing goods from the windows, and utside one shoe store some men were old enough to try on shoes they had aken from a window. Four girls loke a jeweller's window and seized fhat came to their hands. The number of stones thrown to reak windows suggested premedita;on as there are no loose stone in iueen Street. Not Good Enough Ouside a small mercery shop one outh said to a mate, "What about iis one?" The reply was: "No. There ionly cheap-jack stuff here. We will et a better window." ■ Many swaggered about proudly towing handkerchiefs tied round cut ands. Practically every shop window in te whole length of Queen Street with tything inviting in it was smashed, ttticularly jewellers' shops and all !? drapers, like Milne and Choyee's, ourt's and Smith and Caughey's had leir window fronts shattered. All tocery shops met with the same fate. i The police and a navy patrol had - > control of the mob for two hours, , tfause as soon as they passed one i ?int, widow breaking and looting was - toewed. 1 Wherever there was an hotel win--with liquor displayed, this was t aashed and the contents looted. The. a ?ting also led to the destruction of 3ny windows from which th'Sre was o 'Ihing to loot. s j X i| City in Darkness | Lights also were smashed so that >- 2 city was in darkness. Any traffic f- impossible at a late hour. An appeal to all law-abiding abletoed men to assist in the restora111 of order was broadeast by 1YA hehalf of the Mayor, Mr. G. W. f ^ehison, at 9.23 p.m. ■fhe Mayor's appeal was. "I feel it j { duty to appeal to every decent ' ken of Auckland to stand by those Jg authority in upholding law and ,»g fer and thus preventing a recurof the disgraceful rioting that y 3 taken place in the city this evenag '• The trouble is still proceeding, O, ^ I appeal to all law-abiding, phy- % fit men to report at once armWith batons at the police station rd P°^ce S^°P destruction r j Public and private property and u^Bpstore order." the same time Commander Bergy. Of H.M.S. Philomel, had the fol-

lowing message broadeast: "The whole of the ship's company of the Philomel, except boys, are to report on board the Philomel immediately." The response was immediate and many special constables were sworn in at the police station and more will be taken to-morrow. Calmness was maintained in city theatres by the managers keeping'' the news of the riot from the audiences, many of whpm did not know of the trouble until they came out into the scenes of ruin in Queen Street. The theatres were not interfered with by the rioters. The managers extinguished the outside lights, thus giving the impression that the theatres were closed. Twelve Pplice Injured During the riot many were injured, including police and civilians, several seriously. Of the police Detective S. C. Whitelaw, of the Central Station. Mounted Copstable A. Histon, of Onehunga, and Constable W. Cook, Central Station, all suffered head injuries and concussion and their condition is serious. Others injured are: Sergeant Bruce Thompson, waterfront police, head injury; Constable John King, Central Station, head injuries; Constable F. McNeill, Central Station, broken nose; Constable T. Solly, Central Station, injury to left eye; Mounted Constable R. Boag, New Lynn, scalp wound; Constable S. Audley, waterfront police, scalp wound; Constable L. Morgan, Central Station, injury to right eye; Constable G. Edwards, Central Station, injury to right hand; and Constable J. Shields, Ponsonby Station, injury to right arm. Vladimir Antonievic, aged 35, marr;ed, of 42 Mt. Albert Road, Mt. Roskill suffered a severe cut to his left hand. His condition is not serious. The names of many of the injured civilians are not known. Early Signs of Trouble Although the rioting did not break out until some time after the meeting in the Town Hall had commenced, it was present in incipient stages when the- procession was making its way up Queen Street shortly after 7.30 p.m. Then there were irresponsibles in the crowd who had armed themselves with stones and at intervals during the mareh these were hurled at windows. These incidents were scattered, but they were harbingers of the appalling scenes which followed. When the civil servants who headed the procession had entered the Town Hall a large "body of unemployed led by women in the singing of the "Red Flag" were noticed in Grey's Avenue. For a time they stood there orderly enough, listening to the opening remarks from an amplifier. When the Town Hall doors leading on Grey's Avenue were thrown open, the crowd rushed the hall and an ugly mob spirit showed itself for the first time. Leader Addfesses Mob Some of the crowd, who had gained by force access to the hall. were ejected in a few minutes and a eonsiderable body moved round into Queen Street just at the junction of Queen Street and Grey's Avenue. Here the leader of the demonstration mounted a balustrade and addressed through a megaphone hundreds of his followers who had beep crowded out from the meeting. The police were scattered at intervals through the crowd, but they were comparatively few in number j and an ugly undercurrent was already stirring. The leader shouted_ thro.ugh the megaphope that violence was expected. The police were there, he said, and he and his friends were to be arrested. The unemployed were not to qs violence, they were to let the pplice do that.' If the police drew their batons he said, the crowd should get round them and taken their batons from them, but not use violence. Violent Mob Hysteria Another member of the Unemployed ■\yorkers' Associatioi} fcad just started to address the crowd when a detachment of mpupted police arrived. There ! were six of them and they rode up quietly with no batons in evidence. The crowd by this time was completely blocking Upper Queen Street outside the Town Hall and the mounted police. reinforced by constables on foot, attempted to clear a passage through them. Their arrival was signalled by an outbreak of violent mob hysteria, and the most disgraceful thing about it was that it was led to a large extent by women. Women Scream Obscenities A reporter was standing near the balustrade from which the leaders had been addressing the crowd, and behind them were standing women who were screaming obscenities to the police and inciting the men to pull them off their horses. Just when the batons wero drawn and used it is difficult to determine. The mounted police and several constables on foot had approached the balustrade when suddenly an ugly melee developed. Immediately the air was filled with curses and shouts and rioting in the most hideous form", in-

comparable in the history of New Zealand, had broken out. Its flames spread like wildfire. The crowd roared with one voice and despite all the appeals of its leaders, that voice was the call to violence. As if by magie batons appeared ampug the crowd and then rocks started to hurtle through the air, aimed at the mounted police, whose figures rpse abpve the heads of the crowd. Batons were plied freely as the pplice rode rpund the outskirts of the crowd which was not clear of the middle of the street outside the Town Hall. Falsie Rumours of Shots One rock crashed through a window of a shop opposite the Town Hall and like wildfire a shout went round "The brutes are firing on them." Hours afterward in Queen Street the rumour still persisted that firearms had been used. Reporters were outside the Town Hall throughout the disturbance and not one heard the sound of a shot. Reinforcements of constables arrived, but the police force was hopelessly outnumbered. Batons were plied in hand-to-hand encounters and the rearing horses of the mounted police slowly forced the crowd back on to the pavement. One mounted policeman had urged his horse on to the pavement at the corner of Queen Street and Grey's Avenue, when a woman standing on a small grass plot at the junction of the two streets, struck at' him with thp long pole of a banner. He evaded it, but instantly he was struck on the helmet with a flying rock. The ci'owd now was milling round in a frenzy in the area enclosed by the intersection of Queen Street, Rutland Street, Lorne Street and Grey's Avenue.

Beliberate Destrucfion Starts Another section of the crowd diverted its attention from the struggles with the police and started deliberately to smash windows. The action was cpntagious and before long the crash pf broken glass could be heard above the din of the crowd. In justice to the genuine demonstrators, it must be said that they were hardly rpsppnsible for this outbreak of sabotage. Ypung hoodlums could be seen detaching themselves from the main crowd and running down Queen Street, pausing in their headlong rush for an instant to hurl rocks through a shop window. Destruction was let loose on the street. All one saw was flying figures and all one heard was the crash of breaking glass. The police were still engaged with the crowd outside the Town Hall and were powerless to deal with the situi ation. Within a few minutes the stage had bee.n set for an outbreak of law-: lessness whjch gripped hold of the cit^ uhtil lafe into the riight. ' j