BUILDINGS DEFACED

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32361, 29 July 1970, Page 1

BUILDINGS DEFACED

Vandals with paint sprays ant tar brushes who painted Vietnam war slogans on Christchurch walls and fences at the week-end have caused thousands of dollars worth of damage. Fifteen buildings at the primary division of the Christchurch Teachers’ College in Peterborough Street were defaced with s’, gans put on with spray paint. (One is shown above.) The principal of the divi|sion (Dr J. F. Mann) said jthat a tremendous amount of repainting would be required. I “The 1100 students and

staff are dismayed by all of this, not that there is no sympathy with the cause but there is great disappointment with the way it has been expressed,” he said. At a time when educational expenditure was vital, the repair of such damage would place severe strains on college finances, Dr Mann said. Other victims of the slogan painters were General Foods (New Zealand), Ltd, Blenheim Road, and New Zealand Breweries, St Asaph Street. Mr E. W. Atkinson, for General Foods, said yesterday that the cost of removing the sign, which protests about food for troops in Vietnam, might be more than $lOOO. “If we can’t move it—and

it is something like creosote painted on a concrete block wall of a near-new building—we will just have to replace all the damaged sections. The letters are sft high.” Mr R. H. Standish, the manager of New Zealand Breweries in Christchurch, said that three men had worked all day Monday to remove a sign which said Vietnam troops should have no beer. "Though what is left is difficult to see, it can still be read. It looks as though we will have to get in specialists and have the whole of that section re-treated. “Incidentally, we don’t send beer to Vietnam,” he said.