House Wrecked By Children

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 3

House Wrecked By Children

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, September 9.

The police in Rotorua have interviewed nine children aged 12 to 15 after more than £750 damage was done to an unoccupied house.

The house, in Te Ngae road, had been empty only nine days. It was being prepared for removal and the contractors left it on Wednesdayafter taking out the chimneys.

“I have never seen anything like it,” said DetectiveSergeant R. P. Dal low, who interviewed the children.

“Every door had been smashed, all the windows and frames chopped out, shelves and cupboards ripped down and‘the stove chopped with an axe.

“The floor was ankle-deep in debris. There were axe marks at head height on the walls in every room and you could look upward right through to the rafters." The owner of the 17-year-old house, Mr R. G. Bishop, said he had intended moving it to his sheep and cattle station at Mourea

“I doubt if it is worth moving now," he said. “The only part of the house still sound is the frame We may have to bulldoze the place down and put a match to it.” Detective-Sergeant Dallow said some children were likely to appear in the Rotorua Children’s Court.