MORBID CURIOSITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 111, 13 May 1925, Page 6

MORBID CURIOSITY.

AT THE MOUAT TRIAL. WOMEN RUSH THE FRONT SEATS. (T.y Telegraph. —Own Correspondent.) CHRJSTCHURCH, Tuesday. An exhibition of morbid curiosity was given at the Supreme Court this "afternoon at the trial of V. P. Mouat. Front seats in the Court are limited in number, and women seem to be tlie most curious of those who wish to listen to the trial. Just before his Honour Mr. Justice Adams took his seat after the luncheon adjournment there was a most disorderly scene. Thirty-five women of all ages, but mostly of the type which has just said good-bye to napperdom, made frantic efforts to get front seat?. As soon as the door was opened they rushed up tlie stairs to the gallery, charged into tlie back seals like wild things and clambered over the backs of the seats until they reached the front. The melee was accompanied by "excited giggling and noisy chatter. Only one or two men reached the long front seat. Down in the body of the court another batch of women took an interest in the proceedings. There were over sixty women spectators, exclusive of witnesses, who had been ordered out of the court. AYhen the morning session ended a large number of people waited by the side, door to see Mouat being "taken away for lunch. This show of curiosity was frustrated. however, as the prisoner was provided with his food in a room upstairs.