FRUIT PICKERS’ FIGHT

Taranaki Daily News, 29 March 1932, Page 3

FRUIT PICKERS’ FIGHT

FOREIGNERS cause trouble.

Feeling which has been simmering for some time between foreign and Australian fruitpickers at Bern, an irrigation settlement in South Australia, took a serious tum recently, when a running fight through the township was followed by a fierce battle.. Among the weapons used were bottles, stones, pick* ete, shovels, and an axe. During the melee shop windows were broken and three men received injuries for which they required treatment. The police made six arrests. ; The trouble began with an argument in an hotel, and blows quickly followed. A large crowd which gathered near the hotel "quickly took sides, and a general fight followed. The foreigners were hopelessly outnumbered, however, and fought their way out of the hotel. They were followed through the business section of the town by about 150 men, and the air was filled with road metal and other missiles. . ’ The foreigners reached their headquarters, which are in the main portion of the town, and, joined by many of their compatriots and armed with shovels and pickets, they strongly de- . fended a lane giving entrance to their quarters. A police sergeant and a constable fought their way between the two parties and kept them apart until the attackers drifted away. For some time a fusillade of stones, bottles and: other missiles passed over the heads, of the police.