MELBOURNE’S LATEST

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1929, Page 16

MELBOURNE’S LATEST

GHOULS IN CEMETERY. SDAMAGE BY VICIOUS GANG. Sydney, Dec. 16. Desecration of the Melbourne general cemetery is the latest crime laid at the door of Victorian . hooligans, and the manner in which they destroyed valuable property in that consecrated place has roused a storm of protest in the southern capital. Last Monday it was found that tombstones had been overturned, urns deliberately broken, graves trampled upon, flowers rooted up and scattered all over the pathways, and general disorder caused during the week-end, presumably on Sunday night. Monuments which had cost hundreds of pounds were ruined by the vandals, some being smashed beyond repair. There was also ample evidence that a ghoulish supper party had been held upon a huge marble slab covering a vault in which rest the remains of a family whose sons have been prominently* identified with Victoria’s history. Remains >of fried fish and pickles, as well as empty beer bottles, were strewn over the marble slab, and police investigations show that a band of larrikins who had attended a party in the eastern end of Melbourne on the Saturday night were doubtless responsible for all the damage and desecration.

In anticipation of a further visit of the hooligans plain-clothes police slept for nights in the vicinity of the cemetery, but news of the police activity doubtless was passed on to the youths concerned, and there has been no repetition.