THE GOWN COMES TO TOWN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14703, 2 June 1920, Page 2

THE GOWN COMES TO TOWN.

STUDENTS HOLD HIGH REVEL IN SYDNEY. (Otago Daily Times.) j SYDNEY, May 18. j A somewhat, violent "row" is going | on through the newspapers at present j ! as a result of the freedom which characterised the Sydney University undergraduates' demonstration on Saturday last. This was Commemoration Day, and the boys are always allowed a certain license on this occasion. They go in procession through the city, meet at the Town Hall, where they sing libellous songs, and then, in gown and mortar-board, go forth into the streets j and "proceed to turn Sydney red," as j they themselves express it. Their re- , velry does not lack ginger, but, I whether it consists of baiting a policeI man or disturbing the traffic, or pro- • ducing distressing music in some hotel | bar, it is generally good-natured and i clean. But Saturday's demonstration, owing to a few unruly spirits getting I into prominence, was not received by the citizens with their usual tolerance. ; The charges against the students are ! three: (1) Many of their tableaux, in the procession, were lewd and suggestive ; (2) students on the waggons, using ropes, violently .lassoed inoffensive citizens and others pelted the people in an unnecessary way, with packets of flour and sand, dead cats, old vegetables, and highly malodorous fish; (3) the j students showed no respect for pro- j perty, and seriously damaged the Town : Hall organ and piano—this happening, j apparently, in the course _of a bitter , inter-faculty fight, Mfedicine versus Arts and Engineering. ' Both the In-spector-General of Police and the Lord Mayor declare emphatically that "these young hoodlums will not be again permitted to hold their procession," the newspapers generally, support the decision,. and the undergraduates are rushing into. print with assertions of the "Honi soit qui mal y pense" va- ' rieti'. There is iu> doubt that certain of the tableaux were broadly ~ suggestive—but the students should not be blamed overmuch. It is, rather an outcome of the decidedly lax moral tone that may be observed in certain directions in this' city.. The students contencj. that their tableaux were not so i bad as many of the theatrical performances to be seen any night in Sydney—which is true enough. One frolic by the students on Saturday was a surprise call- on the popular Governor. Sir Walter Davidson.. Tliey went to Government- House and met a flustered man in tennis trousers. "What do you want?" he askecL "Wallv," they shouted. "Well, you'll have to wait," was the reply. That did not suit the students, and the whole l 200 of them—about 20 of them were girls, by the way—swarmed into the ; big hall. There they ran right into I the Governor. " "Hullo, Wally," they j cried, and before the; astonished Go-I vernor could speak they had hustled him into one of his own rooms, under- j grads clinging affectionately to eacn • arm. They seated him in a chair and ; clustered round. "Well," said the Go- ] vernor, when he had got his Tjreatn, I "can any of you sing?" They could—j and they did. They sang their Com- ; mem. songs, and the Governor appear- I ed to like it. They had a. merry party, j One of -the students gave tlie Governor ! a miniature straw hat. He tied it j round his neck, and it 'dangled under J his chin. Then lie cast a speculative; eye over the gathering. ''What about "some tea?" lie said, and turning .to members of his household, "Trot out your two loaves/and five small fishes." But the students would not allow this; they did not wish to be quite such a nuisance as that, they said. So they all shook hands with liim, jazzed round the big hall, accepted the cigarettes which his Excellency offered, and went oft in search of fresh fields to conquer.