A PUSH PASTED.

NZ Truth, Issue 80, 29 December 1906, Page 5

A PUSH PASTED.

SUBLIME SUNDAY SHINDY. Sydney Scrouciiers Sorry They Spoke. There was "somethin' doin' " m Wellington, Saturday night, and Sun* day morn. , h'acts are as under :■— An ex-Sydney woman, whose husband used to be well-known v m athletic circles, particularly the ring, m a sort of dilletanti fashion, ana has been for some time employed as a boss over toilers, m Wellington, recently thought she would try taking m boarders, with a view to bettering her family's posLtion. And m iive or six weeks she was "scaled" for £15 by dirty dogs, m regular employment and so with no excuse but out of sheer roguery. When one cur drew his full-time pay . last Saturday, and instead of pangliiift up, cleared out of the house bag and baggage, it was the last stratf, and when the woman's son, a strapping fellow of 13 stone, though still under 20, met the shameless sealer m the street, Saturday night, asked him for the £2 he owed and was told to go to Hell and mind his own business, he very naturally walloped the thief on the jaw. Himself a big fellow, he 'did not dare to retaliate, but sneaked away and got his push together witb a view to vengeance. Now, ' his push' is . a dead croqk mob. The two principals are a pair of toughs wn© are the remnants of a I notorious gang who used to terrorise the suburb of Enfield, near Sydney, and these two, after ihe police had shot the leader of that cowardly ba,nd, were hounded out of the district by a Sergeant named Jones, and others of the Newtown division, and, to escape stiff sentences they had. 'long earned, caane over to. New Zealand and have for some time .•graoed''' Wellington with their undesirable carcases.

This precious pair and some halfdozen others, then marched up town looking for the "man who struck Buckley," so to speak. They found him m Cuba-street, talking to a little nine-stone friend, and they at once sailed m. They found "Buckley's" basher willing, and bis small friend took a hand, .and as he looked a soft thing, about six of them got to him, whjle "Buckley's" hanger was busy knocking his assailants down, -and soon had them stretched out limp across the tramline. _ His mate, seeing his plight, plunged m among the kickin- curs, lifted fcis insensible friend up and supporting him with one arm, met all attacks with punches of such vigor that the pack of snarling dingoes ,were nonplussed, and just as they might have worn the lad down, a policeman came on the scene and grabbed the young slogger.

He explained matters, and the officer asked him to give his assailants m charge, which he refused to do, saying he'd prefer to settle it .his own way.

He did. On Sunday morning he went and routed out a few of his own fellqw-workers, all respectable hard grafters, and they prooeeded, accompanied by the original youth's father, who is by; no means on the shelf yet as regards a turn up with the raw 'uns, tp their men's.hoard-ing-house, on Courtenay Place and asking the precious pair and their pals— the place is' this nasty push's head quarters— if they were as good men o.s they were the night before, and being answered m the affirmative they ordered them to get up and come and prove it.

The first thing one of the Enfield terrors did when he got his pants on was to prove his valor by hurling a spitton at the big youth. He -missed amd the gang were thereupon actually driven out into the streets. They made up Cambridge Terrace and into Jessie-street where they were brought to bay and took to the Sydney larrikin's pet weapon, blue-metal.

That settled it ! The others bored m and m two minutes the biggest ruffian of the leading pair was lying m the road, before hundreds of people, who had rushed out to see the fun, cut and bleeding and positively refusing to get up and fight, when entreated to and pulled a^d hauled and shaken by a little terrier of a chap half his size. The bravo was cowed like the big cur he is and the band was busted completely I It was time this mob got a gruelling, and the •police and citizens ought to testimonialise the gruelgivers • for they were a dangerous, wantonly .cruel* push, and only two Saturday nights previously they had kicked a man almost to death, m Dixon-street. It will *be* some time before^ they muster up enough boozecourage to' be dangerous again, while as to the youth they undertook tp up, he may walk the streets with a chip on his shoulder and' hot any three, of the punched and -punished prowlers will dare to knock it off.