STUDENTS’ HORSEPLAY

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 23 April 1935, Page 7

STUDENTS’ HORSEPLAY

INCIDENTS AT DUNEDIN “BRANDING” WITH CHEMICAL ONE BLACKENED^AND TRUSSED.

Surprising events occurred after a dental students’ function in Dunedin recently. One man found himself branded, while another found himseif, scantily clad and shining black like a Nubian, trussed up on the floor of a passage in a women’s residential college. It all arose out of a paragraph in the university journal, in which a slighting reference was made to the

dental students. Jealous of the good name of their faculty, the students laid violent hands on the writer, who was forcibly subjected to a form of branding. The word “dental” was written with silver nitrate on his forehead, where it remained visible for four or five days. It was scarcely to be expected that matters would rest at that for long. Reprisals were expected and were forthcoming. The second victim, a well-known figure in the dental school, found himself one evening without clothing and rapidly assuming the colour of his own shoes under the ministration of medical hands, which smeared boot blacking on his body and polished him until he shone. The scene changed to a women s hostel. A shining figure of stygian blackness, clad now' in a pair of Rugby shorts and firmly bound, was deposited on the floor in .a passage of the hostel. Discovery soon followed and explanations were made, even if they were not entirely satisfactory. A taxicab was procured for the frantic youth, whose one desire was to gain the benign piivacy of his lodgings.