MAORIS TO THE RESCUE.

Colonist, Volume LII, Issue 12720, 16 February 1910, Page 2

MAORIS TO THE RESCUE.

The Sydney "Daily Telegraph" iff- [ counts an exciting episodo which oc- 1 currcd last week at Clontarf , where j tho Maori village (the inliabitants of which left yesterday on their r<?*arn to New Zealand) was located. A picnic was in progress, during tho course of which three constables i-t---tempted to arrest a man for drunkenness and wore assailed by the crowd. What would have happened to the police had assistance not arrived from an unexpected quarter, is hard to sny but just as the mob was about to ( "deal it out" to them, a blood curdling war cry rang clear above the din— tho Maoris had come to the rescue. Nearly a dozen stalwart warriors, wiio verb preparing to give a "haka" <*ot the amusement of the public, rush 2.1 in full array from their village, and wen* soon in the thick of the figufc. , At first it was uncertain which caU9Q ' they intended to embrace, but mudi to the relief of the police and lawabiding citizens, all doubts were soon settled, and with many fearful r. • as and bellicose gesticulations, they fought their way to the side of the guardians of tho law, and formed a cordon to protect them. Their weiid cries and ferocious appearance blunted tho zest for battle previously sho^vn by the ringleaders of the mob, who did not care to match their botfclss and other impromptu weapons against the murderous looking granite meras which the warriors so deftly wielded. At this stage tho police again arrested their prisoner, and while- the Maoris covered their retirement sad held the crowd at bay, managed to haul him to the wharf. The wharf gates' were then barricaded and prisoner was safely shipped to 3ylucjy.