GRAVE RIOTING RECURS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1932, Page 7

GRAVE RIOTING RECURS

BATTLES WITH SPECIAL POLICE 7 VIOLENCE IN KARANGAHAPE ROAD ' -- 1 ■- - t WINDOWS SMASHED: MANY INJURED . Auckland, Last Night. AN ugly fight between special constables and a section o£ the rioters occurred opposite, the premises of the Bon Marche in Karangahape Road to-night. Two men were seriously'injured by baton wounds and a dozen more received blows of a less serious character, - A stone thrown through a shop window was the start of the fight. A -section of special constables in packed formation and brandishing batons above their heads rushed forward to airest a man shouting, “Stand back! stand back!” to the dense crowd of people, men, women and children, who got in their way as they jostled the crowd. Curses were hurled at them by the men in front. Women shouted, “Leave him alone you dirty scabs!” and next instant the street was thrown into hopeless confusion. Men used their fists and the special constables laid about with their batons. For three or four minutes the street resounded with blows, the scuttling o feet and frenzied yelling. A woman was knocked down in the melee and was carried into a shop, and half a dozen rioters with bleeding heads and arms reeled out of the struggling mass, leaving one ot their numbers in the hands of the “specials. The men who were in the forefront .of the attack gradual y thinned out as some were put out of action by wounds and others moved out of reach of the special constables. ‘At least one man was arrested. He was bleeding profusely from a deep gash on the hca and was led away by two special constables through a jeering, oo - ing mob. . -rr v Although the greatest crowd was concentrated in Karanga ape Road to-night, Queen Street was filled with pedestrians and motor traffic tiU after 9 o’clock. Little business was done, and when the shops closed the stocks were removed from the windows, which were barricaded. Squads of armed men, mounted and on foot, passed up and down and there were groups of police and special constables. By 10 o’clock the street was quiet and after the theatres emptie conditions were tranquil.