WATERFRONT “BATTLE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 November 1929, Page 2

WATERFRONT “BATTLE”

MARINERS COME TO BLOWS.

All was not quiet on the Greyriioutli waterfront last night. Bad. feeling developed between the crews of the steamers Ngatoro and Kalingo, words led to blows, and a miniature Donnybi’ook was fought out on the wharf as midnight approached. When the police arrived, hostilities had ceased, and the combatants were counting up their casualties, in. the form of black eyes and bleeding noses. It is alleged that, during the fray, a revolver was drawn and flourished. The trouble, so far as can be ascertained, started in one of the hotels in Greymouth. Perhaps the hops were of -more than usual potency, or their consumers may have been, loaded below the “Plimsoll line. 'The fighting was resumed later at another hotel, it is understood, and the final flurry in which the numbers of the original combatants had been augmented by reinforcements from the respective vessels, was fought out on the wharf. , t One version has it that the cause oi the trouble was an argument between a New Zealander and an Australian, and that sides were taken by men owning allegiance to- the Dominion and the Commonwealth respectively. The dispute was not referred to the- League of Nations, a policy of direct action bein°' preferred- It is also stated that the rule® of the Marquis of Queensberry were conspicuous by their abscence, the order of battle being al! The Ngatoro sailed this morning, and, under . the circumstances, the authorities were not sorry to see her cross the bar, and dip her bow into the rolling billows of the Tasman.