Damage by vandals

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 3

Damage by vandals

Vandals damaged two Christchurch golf premises on Sunday night, leaving large holes in putting greens, and antiapartheid mottos daubed in tar on a clubhouse and an implement shed.

Also on Sunday night vandals devastated the garden of a Shirley policeman, uprooting vegetables and flowers and cutting the clothes-line, and caused extensive damage to his son’s car.

A dozen holes were dug in the eighteenth green of the Christchurch Golf Club, at Shirley, and the slogans “Apartheid Stinks” and “No Apartheid” were painted with black tar on the clubhouse wall.

The club's green-keeper (Mr M. Stanley) said it appeared that something like a hearth shovel had been used to dig the holes. “I don’t know why whoever did it had to pick on this club; I suppose it was because of the tournament we had when Gary Player was here. We had a bit of trouble just after that with vandals,” he sad. EASILY SEEN At the Hagley Golf Club in North Hagley Park, holes were dug in the second and fifth greens and a -3ft-high slogan was painted on the implement shed which is in full view of the course and paths through the park. In Pagoda Street, Shirley,

Constable G. V. Strong, the court orderly at the Magistrate’s Court, woke yesterday morning to find shrubs, vegetables and small trees tom up, pipe railings bent, and tomato plant stakes ripped out. A garden hose had been

sprayed over the interior of his son’s car and then left running into the petrol tank. Squashed vegetables had been used to smear the bodywork and the car will have to be repainted.

In all, about $l5O damage was done at Constable Strong’s property. “I’ve been in the police force 25 years, serving all over the South Island, and this is the first time anything like this has happened. The people who did this are just cowards,” said Constable Strong. Detectives believe that the persons who did the damage had a grudge against Constable Strong, who recently spoke to a group of youths on a police matter. All of the incidents have been referred to the police, who are also investigating the writing of slogans on fences and gates in Glandovey Road, Fendalton, last week.