“HIGH JINKS” RESENTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 948, 15 April 1930, Page 1

“HIGH JINKS” RESENTED

Complaints From The Bays ROUGH CONDUCT ALLEGED By Section of Yachtsmen COMPLAINTS of bacchanalian revellings and hooliganism were made against a section of Auckland yachtsmen by the Ostend Road Board to the Auckland Yacht and MotorBoat Association last evening. The board alleged that during the summer, and particu- . larly on a recent Saturday evening, crews, while in a drunken condition, had used foul language in the hearing of residents y and that damage had been done to private property.

During general discussion, delegates to the association related instances of ndecent behaviour which had come under their direct purview. It was agreed that the time had come for drastic action. With the receipt of the Ostend letter , a me one from a well-known launchowner. He also complained strongly against the behaviour of certain boating men whose craft were moored alongside him at one of the island resorts. Neither he nor the Ostend Road Board, however, has yet given specific instances, either of the names of boats or of individual members of the crews. The launch man and the board will be asked for full details, and if these are forthcoming the association will take immediate steps to prosecute the offenders. EMBARRASSING LANGUAGE A delegate said that he had taken a party of visitors from Wanganui up ihe harbour on Sunday. He now wished tor the good name of Auckland yachtsmen that he had not. The language coming from certain boats made the ruise most embarrassing, both for the women among his passengers and for himself. How it was a common thing to see .voung men disporting themselves raked on Oneroa Beach at night was told by another delegate. Then came the recollection of a singular incident. “X once saw a young chap running for dear life on the beach without a stitch on at Kawau, vhile a companion was potting at hint with a shotgun for fun,” a delegate said. This narrator alleged that questionable behaviour was not confined to men alone. He had seen girls bathing in the nude with them. "Matters have become so disgraceful that even the decent type of yachtsman is being debarred from dances and concerts at the various bays,” said a member. There had been some wild doings at Brown’s Bay, when irresponsible crews had gone ashore full of liquor.

Eighteen months ago the policeman in charge of a popular island watering place was mobbed and his trousers removed. The unfortunate man was forced to walk home “very cold about the legs.” The police department is still looking out for the offenders. They have one slender clue, to the knowledge of a member of the association. DISGRACEFUL HAPPENING “There was a time not many years ago, when disgraceful happenings of the kind we all know go on would not have been tolerated,” a yachtsman said hotly. “I remember a brawl among a boat’s crew at Islington Bay. It occurred in the middle of the night. When the offenders had sobered they were, so ashamed that they pulled up the anchor and slipped out of the bay before the rest of the crews were stirring, so that their identity could not be established.” After further discussion it was agreed that the association’s solicitors be instructed to co-operate with the police with a view to securing prosecution of offenders as soon as specific names have been secured. “The pity ol’ this is that the good name which 90 per cent, of boating men are jealous to guard is being besmirched by a few crews who are nothing but irresponsible rotters,” a delegate said disgustedly, and added: “Soon not a bay in the gulf will be open to us. If we can catch the offenders we should press for a good stiff penalty—send them for a stretch, if it can be done.” The association was unanimous that (he offenders would have to be brought up with a round turn. The Ostend Road Board is to be asked for the registration numbers on the sails of yachts whose crews were suspected of riotous behaviour, or better still a list of names. Last season a prominent and respected launch-owner called on The Sun asking that a protest be inserted in “Keelson’s” yacht columns against language which had forced him from an anchorage out of consideration for his wife.