AUCTIONEER MOBBED.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43114, 6 July 1907, Page 4

AUCTIONEER MOBBED.

Exciting scenes took place recently at East Croydon in connection with the sale of goods of anti-vaeoination-ists who (refused’ to pay their fines. Aj ,tarowd ! of between 500 and 600 (people.were attracted to the yard near "the station, where the sale was announced to take place. Before the proceedings 'began a gaily decorated van, containing the wives and children of some of those’whose goods were to.he "sold, was driven up, and shortly afterwards the arrival of the goods, which , * consisted of household articles, was received with much cheering. It'having been found impossible to prevail, upon any auctioneer in Croydon to undertake the sale, the services of Mir T. Spearing, of St John’s Hill, Clapham Junction, were retained. When he arrived a, rush was made in bis direction by the crowd, but be was quickly surrounded by a large force of police and conducted to the van from j which the sale was to 1 take place. Having attained this eminence, he was immediately greeted with a shower of flour, rotten eggs, and other decorative missiles.

Mr Bonner, of Leicester, led the crowd in a demand to see the auctioneer’s license, contending that if this was not produced the sale would he illegal. As this demand was not complied with the crowd made a rush for the van, and a fight between the crowd and the police/ for the possession of the auctioneer, followed. The struggle was a spirited one, 'but finally the police rescued the auctioneer, though with the loss of his silk hat, which was captured as a trophy, and vigorously kicked from foot: to foot. The auctioneer, having regained the van, pluckily continued the unequal contest. He was standing up to offer one of the lots when a well-directed egg caught him in the eye, and the contents ran down his neek and over his 'clothes.The crowd made another rush:, hut the police kept them back. After other attempts to conduct the sale had been made, it bad finallv to be abandoned, and the auctioneer, surrounded by a bodvgunrd of police, was escorted to the railway station through the hostile crowd. The goods were taken hack in the van to the police station yard. No arrests were made, and the police behaved with the utmost good humor, though they were liberally bespattered with the'flour and other articles intended for the auctioneer. 1