NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13938, 21 December 1908, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

HOOLIGANISM ON THE RAND. Johannesburg and the surrounding districts have recently suffered from an epidemic of native rowdyism, which has caused some anxiety among the white population. Time and again the streets in various quarters have been dominated by bands of black hooligans, all connected more or less with a gang known as the Amalita. This body, Hi is stated, is composed largely of native criminals, and is recruited from houseboys, whose Sundays are spent in making the day hideous, in insulting, and, where it can be done safely, annoying and assaulting individual white , pedestrians of «ither sex, and in terrorising and assaulting natives who do not belong to their gang. Its members are armed with knob-kernes and battleaxes, the latter imported and sold by unscrupulous traders, and are very formidable even to the authorities. To natives who do not join them they are murderous. Some weeks ago a native was brought in to the charge office at Doornfontein with his cheek almost severed from his face, the result of an assault with a battle-axe. On a recent Sunday matters reached a climax. The Doornfomein police received information that a big lawless demonstration was contemplated, and the whole force was concentrated; at the Denver end of Bezuidenhout Valley, apparently a favourite gathering-ground of these marauders. The information-proved correct, for, according to a local journal's account, several hundred natives, carrying knobkerries and battleaxes, ■] charged down the kopjes. The police tried to surround them, whereupon the natives broke/and fled, and only seven arrests were made. On the same day over a hundred natives assembled hear the railway crossing at End-street Park. They blocked the road, and molested and insulted the passers-by until the arrival of the police, who succeeded in capturing the ringleaders and eight others. Next day the seven men captured at Bezuidenhout Valley were convicted of unlawful assembly, and each sentenced to four months' imprisonment, the magistrate expressing , regret that he was unable under the Act to add lashes as well, as that was the only method of dealing effectively with this class of native. Seven others were sentenced to pay fines of £5 apiece, or, in default, six weeks.' imprisonment. These frequent outbreaks of lawlessness have naturally aroused public feeling, and energetic repressive measures are being called for. As compared with the stern punishments inflicted under the Kruger regime, the treatment now meted out to these offenders is lenient, and it is believed that this has had a bad effect on the natives. '