Misbehaviour Problem On Auckland Wharves

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31660, 22 April 1968, Page 20

Misbehaviour Problem On Auckland Wharves

"The Press” Special Service AUCKLAND, April 18. The Auckland Harbour Board is so disturbed about reports of vandalism, dangerous behaviour, and immoral conduct by teen-agers on Stanley Bay and Devonport wharves that it is considering prohibiting use of the wharves to all except ferry passengers. The board and the Devonport Borough Council have agreed to meet to discuss the problem. The complaints were made to the board by North Shore Ferries, Ltd, which told a meeting of the board that youths and girls had been seen at night running naked on the ferry Makora, berthed at the Devonport Wharf. A letter from the company

said: “Each year during the summer we are plagued with the problem of youths and girls swimming and diving from the wharves, boarding the ferries and casting mooring lines adrift, smashing windows, damaging the passenger termiual, dropping gangways and using them as diving platforms and diving into the wake of the ferries at the risk of injury.” North Shore Ferries said tjie master of the Stanley Bay launch had reported that he had nearly killed two children diving under the vessel. The problem arose because the wharves were open at all times, said the board. It considered the complaints serious enough to warrant prohibiting use of the wharves to all except ferry passengers.