"SIXTY-SIX UP."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8446, 22 May 1907, Page 5

"SIXTY-SIX UP."

LOOKING FOR A TWO-UP SCHOOL.

POLICE RAID ON A GYMNASIUM,

On Monday night, at the solemni

hour of twelve, there was an "interesting little ceremony" in a room at. the end of an alley that abuts on the west side of Willis Street, near the Lambton Quay corner. InspectorEllison, Chief-Detective McGrath, and other police officers were the principal visitors at the function and an impromptu programme of various unrehearsed incidents was gone, through. The institution purported to be asort "of school cf physical and the visitors took a warm interest in the scholars' doings. Indeed the visitors asked kindly after the pupils' 1 names and addresses, and the students were so overcome by his display of kindly interest that they were almost too shy to speak. However, they did something to entertain In—spector Ellison and his associates.. There was no set programme, no formal recitations (beyond the mere utterance of names). Still there was no dearthf of entertainment. Some? of the scholars endeavoured to per*form a feat known as the disappearing trick. Two or three even got on to a roof, and it was rumoured that they had emulated the example.' of the heroine in a melodrama by escaping along telephone wires, biit the police say that the gymnasts were; not allowed to wander far into to the cold night. The performance really began at;a quarter to eleven on Monday night. Chief-Detective McGrath, aecom-*-panied by Detectives Broberg, Cas» sells, Connolly, Rawle, Lewis, and Williams, Sergeant Rutledge, and" half a dozen constables made their way along the dark little alley leading to a staircase over which' the "gymnasium" was situated, and found that the school of physical culture was indulging in an opendoor policy. The chain used to bar the door was not secured, and the lock was not shot. The moment the officers pushed into the room there was considerable consternation among some of the occupants. There was a thick haze of tobacco smoke in the apartment, and the faces of the scholars were scarcely discernable in the haze. The students were so surprised that they forgot to perform gymnastic feats, with the solitary Indian club that, hung from a wall, the couple of pairs of boxing gloves, and the few other aricles associated with manly sport. There was a rush by the timid. They groped blindly for an egress, but there was none. The invadeis occupied the strategic points; there was no passing the grim guards till bail had been offered. The object of the raid was to secure evidence of "two-up." The room was leased about three months ago-to Sidney McNamara, a young man,, who said he wanted it as a gymnasium, a place for legitimate, harmJess recreation. For some time, however, the police have had the room, under suspicion. In all 66 men were jarrested. At the Wellington Police Court,, yesterday morning, McNamara was, charged with having kept a common, gaming-house, and the others were' charged that taey had been present, without,lawful excuse, in a common gaming-house on the night of 20th May. All pleaded not guilty. Mr Wilford, who appeared for theKeeper of Uie room and 64 of the. men, asked for a remand till next Monday, which was granted.—Post.