Tension mounts in Timaru

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 12

Tension mounts in Timaru

(From Our Own Reporter)

TIMARU, December 28. Tension is mounting in Timaru at the rumoured invasion in the New Year of an estimated 400 motor-cyclists from throughout New Zealand.

It has been reported that 90 motor-cyclists, their sights set on Timaru, have already made bookings in the steamer express.

The Timaru police, however, will not tolerate behaviour by persons or groups which could reflect adversely on Timaru’s image, according to Chief Inspector B.K. Dean, commandant of the Timaru police district. Police from other centres have been called upon to assist the Timaru police in maintaining law and order over the New Year holiday period—and as has been the case in the past, police dogs will be used.

The police are seeking the co-operation of the public in reporting incidents likely to give rise to hooliganism, and hotelkeepers also have been asked to do everything in their power to minimise the sale of liquor to persons likely to create a disturbance.

The Timaru police are concerned that there might be a repetition on New Year’s Eve of the troublesome acti-

vities of a section of Timaru motor-cyclists who on Christmas Eve in the Marchwiel area consumed liquor in the open and repeatedly revved their machines until the early hours of the morning. At New Year, Timaru has an itinerant population of from 10,000 to 15,000, including a large proportion of young people who flock to the Caroline Bay carnival. The balloon generally goes up with the lighting of the New Year’s Eve bonfire on the sands at midnight. Over the years, vigilance and fairness on the part of the Timaru police nave been an effective deterrent to Bacchanalian revels on the foreshore; and there have only been a few isolated instances of misbehaviour and passive, demonstrations on street The police hope that common sense will prevail, but in the light of the possible disturbance posed by an influx of 400 motor-cyclists,-precautions are being taken to ensure that disturbances do not take place.