SYDNEY "PUSHES."

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1920, Page 5

SYDNEY "PUSHES."

SIGNS OF RECRUDESCENCE. There were sign? in Sydney during the week-end of that recrudescence of the Sydney curse, the "pushes," to which reference has been made on a number of occasions lately. The pushes -seem to be composed of youths who havd never smelt powder, but who have imbibed the lawless spirit of the war period. Two pushes, the "Newts" and the "Gippos" (the Newtowna and t/le Chippendales, their respective suburbs) had a pitched battle at a busy suburban corner early on Sunday evening. There seemed to be fully one hundred engaged. They had been scouring about for two or three evenings prior to the encounter, and they had the neighbourhood in a complete state of nerves. Large numbers of people had gathered to witness ■the encounter.

The "Newts" to the number of about BO came along in all the panoply of war. They were armed with iron bars and loaded sticks, and they pranced and emitted blood-curdling yells. They let everyone know that they were looking for the hated "Gippoa," and they signified that they would be satisfied with, nothing leas than eating their enemies while the latter were still alive.

The "Gippos" did not ahun the imminent encounter. They gathered in a side street, grim, but not silent. They too howled in a most Wood-curdling manner, and they brandished an impressive collection of weighted clubs. The "Newts" arrived at the corner, and im-. mediately the battle started. What it lacked in science it made up in enthusi* asm.

Meanwhile two stout policemen had been apprised of what was toward, and they sought the battlefield with all expedition. Tlio fight had been moist merrily in progress for some minutes when they arrived. The two policemejt did not waver—they drew their batons and "waded into" the middle of the battle. , The cry of "cops" went up, and the battle ended in a second. The warrior* of both Vdes, although they outnumbered the police by fifty to one, promptly fled in great disorder, leaving the roadway scattered with their weapons. The constables had jumped right into the middle of the battle and grabbed. They caught and held three of the leading "pushites." One fought savagely for freedom, and he was roughly handled.

The neighborhood was absolutely quiet for the remainder of that night. Honor, it seemed, had been satisfied.

In other suburbs, on Saturday ftight, the police found a man and a middleaged woman lying unconscious. The slight evidence available shows each to have been attacked by a "push.*