Many Offer Help After Rugby Union Office Fire

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32306, 26 May 1970, Page 26

Many Offer Help After Rugby Union Office Fire

(New Zealand Press association) AUCKLAND, May 25. The telephones at the Auckland Rugby Union headquarters were jammed this morning by callers offering help after the explosion of a fire bomb in the building at 12.16 a.m.

“We’re still in business,” said the union’s chairman (Mr R. M. Don). “Part of the office has gone, but we can continue to work from the undamaged boardroom.”

He did not blame any group for the incident, but said it was obviously connected with the All Black tour of South Africa. Among today's callers at

the office was an 80-year-old man who wanted to help to clear the mess. “That’s typical of the disgust shown by people at this act," said Mr Don. It was shocking that people were prepared to go to such lengths. “The end result of actions like this is that someone could be injured or killed," Mr Don said. A team of detectives, assisted by D.S.I.R. scientists today sifted through the charred interior of the office.

The police believe a fire bomb was probably thrown through a window of the office, which occupies the middle floor of a three-storey building. The shattered pieces of a bottle were found inside.

After conferring with insurance assessors today, Mr L. Warren, secretary of the union, estimated Hie damage to be at least $5OOO. Wooden panelling on the wall where the fire started was destroyed, scores of windows were smashed, a clock, three chairs, a table and many other items in the office

were lost, and fragments of glass littered the floor. ‘These things can be replaced, but there are some articles which were irreplacable," he said. These included seven plaques, mementoes of earlier Rugby tours, a Ranfurly Shield record In the form of a tapestry, and photographs of various games. Smoke spread through other rooms in the building, and the worst affected was the boardroom, where black stains covered the walls, ceiling and chairs. Mr Warren did not expect any confusion in bookings as

a result of the fire. “It’s business as usual today, but under rather difficult conditions," he said. The police appealed to anyone who saw persons in the area about midnight to get in touch with them. The Citizens’ Association for Racial Equality had not and would not plan or take part in any illegal activity against the All Black tour, its secretary (Mr T. O. Newnham) said this morning. His feeling on the question of direct action was that tour opponents had differing views on the usefulness or desirability of this. There was a clear distinction between acts such as the demonstration on the Athletic Park field, which he felt was courageous and admirable, and an act such as the burning of the Auckland Rugby headquarters. The latter he regarded as both criminal and cowardly. The photograph shows Mrs J. Atkinson, an office worker with the Auckland Rugby Union, helping to clean the office after the fire.