STREET DANCING

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18, 22 July 1919, Page 8

STREET DANCING

IMPROMPTU ARRANGEMENTS

AND HORSEPLAY

YOUNG MAN SENT TO GAOL.

Open-air and street dancing has been, according to cabled messages, quite a feature of the Peace celebrations in the United Kingdom and France, and had last night's weather been reasonably fine Wellington would have followed the lead of the older countries, no doubt to the very considerable enjoyment of the dancers and of the onlookers. However, the rain and wind precluded any possibility of the carrying out of the arrangements for dancing in Post Office-square, and the Waterside Workers' Band, which was to have supplied dance music, therefore adjourned to the balcony of the Returned Soldiers' Club, where an open-air concert was given. A fairly big crowd gathered and enjoyed the music quietly enough till the bright spirits of the crowd decided that, rain or no rain, dance music was being played, and they might well take advantage of that music. Couples—in '■ point of number only, for the fair sex remained unattracted by the strains of the music— paired off, and a space was cleared in front of the club. The impromptu arrangements served well enough till a series of interruptions was caused by the passing of tramcars. The crowd, which had by this time increased very considerably, at first good naturedly endeavoured to block the lines, but were pushed aside by the cars as they crawled along at a snail's pace. A brighter in** tellect tnan the rest, that is, of course, from some points of view, hit on the idea of pulling the cars up by jerking the trolley poles dear of the overhead wire. Several cars were so pulled up temporarily, but other conductors rose to the occasion, and threatened the youths and others who attempted to reach the trolley pole ropes with the steel bars used in changing line points. Several cars got through without a hitch, but the matter became serious as the crowd became more excited, and was brought to a climax by the arrival of a body of police.

One young man, Leslie Oldaker, was caught in the a*ct of pulling the trolleypole of a 'car clear of the overhead gear, and was taken, in charge and escorted to the Central Police Station. The crowd, became very excited at this new interruption of . their amusement, and. followed on after. A dense mass of four hundred or five hundred men collected at the station entrance, and made a hostile demonstration, getting more and, (more excited each moment. Stones began to fly through the air, and six or seven windows in the station front were smashed. The leaders were noted, and the police and detectives sallied forth to gather them. in. Constable fScarry' tackled one of the most demonstrative, but was thrown to the ground and kicked in the body by a second young man. He was forced to relinquish his hold on the man he had" attempted to arrest, but managed to catch and hold his assailant, who, when taken into the watchhousa, gave tho name ot Alfred O. Needham. Subsequently a third young man, in the front line of the crowd at the station entrance, came under the particular notice of the police, and, after a struggle, was arrested by Sergeant Matheson, and locked up.

Seeing that the crowd had no intention of dispersing, the police resorted to the very old strategy of threatening to drench them with a fire hose. Actually the water was' never turned on-, but it was a cold night and cold water in wholesale quantity did not appeal to the crowd at all. The front lines backed away and gradually the mob moved off.

This morning the three young men were brought before Mr. E. Page, S.M., at the Magistrate's Court. Oldaker was fined £2, the maximum penalty which may be imposed under the bylaw under which he ■was charged, and ISTeedham, whose offence was shown by the evidence to have been rather serious, and who had been previously convicted of assault, was sent to gaol-for fourteen days. As there was a possibility of mistaken identity in the case of the other man arrested, he was given the benefit of the doubt, and the charge of obstructing Sergeant Matheson preferred against him was dismissed..