“YOUNG ARCHER HERE"

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 525, 30 November 1928, Page 1

“YOUNG ARCHER HERE"

MAYOR AND TOWN CLERK HOAXED CHRISTCHURCH FIRE JOKE Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, To-day. The Mayor of Christchurch and the town clerk were called away from their beds early this morning by telephone messages informing them that the City Council offices AA 7 ere on fire, and that the tire brigade had been fighting the flames desperately for a quarter of an hour. The Mayor received the first call at 12.43 o'clock, the person giving the ring stating he was the town clerk. Two minutes later the toAvn clerk received a call to the same effect from a man AA r ho said he A\*as “young Archer." Without* waiting to make further inquiries they both rushed into .the city. The Mayor was not asleep when he received the telephone call, having arrived back from a complimentary social to Mr. D. G. Sullivan, M.P., only a short time before, but he had gone to bed. The telephone was ansAA'ered by Mrs. Archer, and in her excitement she was unable to detect that the vos.ee was not that of the toAvn clerk. Jumping out of bed and dressing hurriedly, the Mayor immediately rang up Mr. Sullivan, then AA'ith Mrs Archer he motored round to pick up Mr. Sullivan, wasting no time on the 'trip. On arriving at the City Council offices they found the place absolutely deserted, with no signs anywhere of fire having occurred. Thinking that the message might have referred to the old council offices in Oxford Terrace, they went round to them, only to find that the whole business had been a hoax.