STUDENT FINED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 27

STUDENT FINED.

DISTURBANCE AFTER BOAT

RACE.

TOLD POLICE KE WAS PRINCE

or wai.es

MAGISTRATE'S CAUSTIC COMMENTS

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, June 7.

An aftermath of the disgraceful scenes enacted by Sydney University students at the Tivoli Theatre and near the Cenotaph during commemoration celebrations a fortnight ago occurred in Melbourne on Saturday night last, when a prominent member of the Sydney University eight-oar crew, which competed for the Oxford and Cambridge Cup on the River Yarra during the afternoon, was arrested for offensive behaviour and resisting arrest. During the commemmoration celebrations in Sydney a fortnight ago students who had booked the whole of the seating accommodation at the Tivoli Theatre pelted the artists with "throw-downs," rotten fruit and dead animals, and even parts of human bodies taken from the Medical School. Later a party paraded in Martin Place and two of the youths were placed under arrest for offensive behaviour near the Cenotaph. Intense public indignation was aroused at their conduct.

On Saturday John Cameron Loxton, 20, bow in the Sydney University champion eight, with a number of companions, went to a post-boat race dinner. Later they walked along Collins Street and were seen by two plain-clothes policemen to interfere with a car which they were endeavouring to push down the street. They were spoken to and told to make themselves scarce.

Loxton refused to move from the spot, and when the police insisted, said: "Don't you know who lam ? lam the Prince of Wales —His Royal Highness— that's how you should address me." When the police endeavoured to remonstrate with the youth, he struck at them, and called loudly for his companions to come to his aid. He was taken struggling to the Russell Street police station, and charged with offensive behaviour and resisting arrest. On Monday, in the Police Court, he was fined £3 on each charge, with an alternative of three weeks' gaol.

"This makes one wonder whether it would npt be advisable to have some university students in charge of a keeper," said Mr. Berriman, the Police Magistrate before whom Loxton appeared. L, "ton, who pleaded not guilty to both charges, was defended by a K.C. and a junior barrister. Several witnesses were called for the defence, but Mr. Berriman said he did not believe them against the evidence of the police. Plain-clothes Constable Packard told of seeing the men pushing the car in Collins Street. When he add essed Loxto:., the constable said that Loxton said: "I am a Sydney University graduate. Don't speak to me like that. lam his Boyal Highness the Prince of Wales, and when you speak to me you address me as 'Your Royal Highness.'" Continuing his evidence, the constable said that when he and another constable took hold of Loxton he shouted: "Come on boys. Hop into them." But the others ran away and left Loxton in the •hands of the police. Loxton in his evidence denied that he was drunk, and that he struck the police. He said he remembered talking about the Prince of Wales, but added that he only said it in a joke. He said that he thought the policemen were "toughs." Several" other students from Melbourne, Adelaide and the Tasmanian Universities gave corroborative evidence, but Mr. Berriman said that he had decided to convict. • Br. Cohen, K.C, who appeared for Loxton, pleading for leniency, said that he had undergone the indignity of being put in a cell. Mr. Berriman, P.M.: No indignity at all. He is just the sanae as other young men. I believe the police," he added. "Liberty must not be used as a license. Nobody minds students having a bit of fun, but they must be held responsible just like any other person, and certainly one expects something from educated men."