STREET BATTLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 4, 5 January 1934, Page 3

STREET BATTLE.

THE "PUSH" RETURNS.

WILD NIGHT AT BALMAIN.

FIGHTING FOR FUN".

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, December 30,

On a. recent Saturday night Balmain revived some of the lost glories of the "push" era of 30 or 40 years ago, when the gangs located in the Rocks area, and at Pyrmont, or the Glebe, Chippendale or Woolloomooloo, were in their prime. Ab many of my readers may not be familiar with the earlier history of Sydney, and the disclosures of "push" life, recorded by Ambrose Pratt and Lewis Stone are not so well known as they should be, I may explain that the "pushes" of those days were loose confederations of young men bound together less by a liking for crime than by a dietaste for any controlling authority, the love of lighting and the determination to have a good time in their own way. Of course, criminals were naturally to be found in the ranks of the "pushes," but unlike the American gangsters and their modern imitators they did not employ revolvers or razors or knives to settle their differences. "Blue metal" stones wrapped in socks and palings were favourite weapons, and though there was a good deal of kicking and miscellaneous brutality, the frequent fights were not so dangerous as might have been expected. "Battle of Chowder Bay." One of the most famous of these conflicts occurred at Chowder Bay—the popular harbour resort now known as Cliflon Gardens. Over 100 men fought for a. long time, till Several boatloads of police arrived to disperse them and convey 40 or 50 wounded to hospital. But that was nearly 40 years ago. In those days the regular procedure was for a "push" in want of a light to invade an enemy territory, usually prefacing its_ advent with a definite challenge, which was never refused. ° At Balmain the other night, it seems the traditional practice was followed. News had come that a "mob" from Vi averley was coming to "clean up" the local '"push," and the invaders kept their appointment at 10 p.m,. arriving in motor cars. Tho youth of Balmain rallied to the defence of their strongholds, and some 50 men charged up and down the streets in desperate conflict. As fists and boots proved inadequate to the occasion, tho combatants tore palings and battens from nearby fences, and it was the loud snapping fusillade of the palings stripped from the fences and splintered over hostile heads that alarmed the residents of Beattia Street i and induced them to ring up the police. As a matter of fact there was no firing, and when the police arrived, the two "pushes," again following the established tradition, scattered at once, making for safety over fences and through alleys and houses, without attempting to face "the force."

Blood Stained Palings. Beattie Street was in a rather sanguinary state as blood-stained bricks and palings lay in all directions; and the representatives of law and order captured three prisoners—one lying on the ground with liis head in the lap of a woman who was tending his wounds, another staggering about the road clasping his head in both hands, and a third lying in a car half conscious with blood streaming from his face—and by his side, a silent witness, a four gallon demijohn of beer. The three captives were subsequently charged -with "riotous behaviour," and have been duly dealt with in Court. But after all, this recrudescence of "push" violence is not so serious a sign of social decadence as might at first sight appear. These episodes are brutal enough, and they should certainly not be tolerated in a civilised community. But there is some ground for the "Sun's" contention that we ought to be rather gratified to know that "nobody was shot or robbed or slashed—they were simply 'stoushed.'" The idea that "if we had a Cato in Australia, lie would be pleased at this return to the simple Koman virtues of our fathers," may have something in it after all.