TOO EVIDENT PATRIOTISM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 51, 22 August 1911, Page 5

TOO EVIDENT PATRIOTISM

ATTACK ON ANTI-MILITARISTS.

ROWDYISM IN CHItISTCHURCH,

By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. What was intended to be an antimilitarist meeting in the Choral Hall tonight developed into one of the rowdiest scenes yet _ witnessed in ChristchuiX'li, and something approaching a riot oceured before the contending factions retired. The meeting was publicly advertised, and a large crowd assembled outside, only to find the doors shut and the hall filled with ticket holders. Many of the men desiring to get inside produced bogus tickets, and some actually entered by this means before the deception was discovered. The crowd of men outside, annoyed at being unaMe to get in, started a great uproar, that being followed by the heaving of lumps of road metal through the windows of the hall, the intention being to break up the meeting at any cost.

A flagstaff bearing a Union Jack was also pushed through one of the windows, but was seized by somebody inside and the flag was torn to shreds. This only served to increase the violence outside, and finally the assault on the building became so strong tli it the lights were put out and the meeting closed. At the height of the uproar a terrible explosion was heard, and it was at first thought that those opposed to the meeting were trying to blow up the building. What happened, however, was that a photographer, al>out to take a flashlight view of the scone, set a light to his magnesium powder while under compression, the result being that the whole thing exploded. Several windows in the vicinity were shattered. The photographer was hurled of! his perch, and a part of his camera outfit tore its way into one of his wrists, which was badly lacerated. The police meanwhile were working with a will, and soon had a squad of the ringleaders in custody, some half-dozen men being arrested altogether. An invasion was also made of the local Socialist Hall, and several windows in that building were broken. Altogether the business- was most disorderly and discreditable. While the attack on the Chora! Hall was in progress two jets of water from the high pressure supply were directed on the invaders, and this had anything but the desired effect of cooling the too evident patriotism of the attackers.