SCENE IN CHRISTCHURCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10400, 22 August 1911, Page 5

SCENE IN CHRISTCHURCH.

ANTI-MILITARIST MEETING ATTACKED. A TREMENDOUS UPROAR. NUMEROUS ARRESTS MADE. By Telegraph — Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night. .What -was intended to be an AntiMilitarist meeting in the Choral Hall to-night developed, into one of the rowdiest scenes yet witnessed in Christchurch, and .something approaching a riot occurred before the contending factions retired. Tho meeting was publicly advertised, and a lairge crowd assembled outside, only to find the doors shut, and the hall filled "with ticket-hold-ers. Many of the men desiring to get inside, .produced bogus tickets, and .some actually entered iby this means before the deception was discovered. Th© crowd of men outside, am:lived at being unable to get in, started a great uproar, this being follow-: ed by the heaving of lumps of roadmetal through the windows of the hall, the intention being to break up the meeting at any cost. j A flagstaff hearing a Union Ja-ok was also pushed through one of tho windows, but was seized by somebody inside, and the flag was torn to shreds. This only served to increa.se the violence outside, and finally the assault on the building .became so. strong .that the lights wore put out ) and the meeting closed. i At the height of the uproar, a ter- i rible explosion, was heard, and it 1 was at first thought that those op- | posed to the moetmg were trying to blow up tlie. building. What happened, however, was that a photographer, about to ta,ke a flashlight view of the set alight 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 off his perch, and a part of his camera outfit tore its way into one of his wristsi, which was badly lacerated. ■ ' The police .meanwhile were work- j ing with a will, and soon had a j squad of the ringleaders in custody, some half-ardozen men being arrested altogether. An invasion -was also made of the local Socialist Hall, and several windows in the building were broken. The whole business was most disorderly and discreditable. While the attack on the Choral Hall was in progress, two jets of •water from the high pressure .supply* were directed on. to the invaders, and this' had anything but the desired effect of cooling the too-evid-ent patriotism of the attackers.