Soldiers, Sailors In Scuffle As Captain Cook Sails

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28447, 29 November 1957, Page 14

Soldiers, Sailors In Scuffle As Captain Cook Sails

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 28. A soldier struggled with a crew member of the Captain Cook in full view of hundreds of people gathered on the wharf to bid farewell to the 670 men of the Ist Battalion, New Zealand Regiment, this evening. The incident occurred at the ship’s rail near the stern. The seaman had been hurling refuse down on to the wharf into the crowd. * Within minutes, other soldiers and members of the ship’s crew entered the fray. They separated the two men and order appeared to have been restored when the ship drew away into the stream. The seaman involved first drew attention to himself when he started shouting abuse at a policeman standing near the ship’s side. Then he started throwing orange peel, two oranges, and finally a carton of galley refuse at the > constable. When the policeman began to remonstrate with the seaman, the verbal abuse hurled at him became worse. The crowd below became itate. A Maori woman bent down, re- . moved one of her shoes, and

hurled it at the seaman. Another member of the crew picked it up and dropped it over the side. After the scuffle between the soldier and the seaman had been broken up, the exchanges between the crew and the crowd below increased. The Maori, woman reached down and removed her other shoe. She hurled it at the ship. This, too, ended up in the water, and she was left standing in her stockinged feet as the ship drew away in the pouring rain. Verbal exchanges between the crew and soldiers took place elsewhere before the ship left. Seven seamen reached the wharf after the ship had cleared the wharf. They were taken aboard a police launch and put on the ship in the stream. ARE YOU DEAF? —or finding it a strain to hear all the conversation? MAICO HEARING AIDS, the latest from America, will cope with all losses of hearing. Priced from £32 10s (Less the Govt, subsidy.) See the Spectacle aid—they are marvellous. Call, ring, or write, and arrange for a home trial. Two years' guarantee—Free Insurance. Efficient After-Sales Service. THE FARMERS' MAICO CLINIC, e- —AdVt.