MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, 20 July 1925, Page 3

MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE.

“PUSHES”- AND BANDITS. Masked and armed bandits again made their appearance amongst the couples lovemaking on Yarn Bank and the nearby gardens. Herbert Ch,arnock and Nellie Steeth reported to the St. Kida Road Polico Station shortly before 1U o’clock that they had been held up and robbed by .armed men. No. 2 police motor patrol hurried to the scene, and at the same time a wireless message sent out by the police station was picked up by the No. 1 patrol. Both cars arrived at the scene of the hold-up at the same moment. No. 1 patrol, under Constable Cornish searched Alexandra Avenue, and No. 2 patrol dashed along Punt Road towards Anderson St. Bride.

Near the Botanic Gardens four men were seen in the shadows. Constable Gooden fired two shots at two fleeing forms. The suspects stopped, perspir-, ing and panting. Sloan and other police chased other fugitives through ' the shrubberies, but they got away by ; scaling a high wire fence into the Botanic Gardens. The police emerged from the chase with their bans blteu- I ing and clothes badly torn by briar bushes in their headlong dash in the darkness. Later the police found a dummy gun, piece of black cloth, wmc.i might have been used as a mask, a watch, and a woman’s handbag. A sequel to the happening was at the City Court to-day, when John Murphy, 19, motor mechanic, and Harold gent, 19, labourer, were charged with robbery under arms. I hey wero remanded till July 10. Desperate fights between pushes, rivalling the ait rays of a. few years ago, occurred at Melburno during the next week-end. One of the affairs was a battle, m which bottles, stones, and pickets torn from a fence, were used. ’lhis took place on Saturday night at East Brunswick between rival pushes from Fitzroy and Brunswick. After they had been lighting about a quarter of an hour, a message was sent to the police station, where there was only one man on duty. He ’phoned for reinforcements, and went to the scene of the alfray. As soon as lie was seen the mobs dropped their hostility, and attacked him, but he drew his revolver. and fired several shots. The crowd stopped, and with a threat to shoot, ho dispersed them. There was another mob fight at North Melbourne, when police on licensing duty endeavoured to question a man who carried a heavily-laden bag away from an hotel. Nearly two hundred people wero mixed up in this fight, and several policemen wero badly handled. in another push fight at Carlton, sixty men and young women participated. , Strangely enough, the same week-end in Svdney was marked by two serious football riots. A free fight, in which several plovers look part, occurred on the. Cabramatfn Oval. There was much excitement during the game, and there • had been a great deal of argument. As soon as the m,ateli was over, matters took a serious turn, and blows were struck. Flavors and spectators engaged in a fierce fight. The referee of the match was severely assaulted, and the disturbance was not quelled until the police arrived and made arrests. Four people had to be removed to hospital following a riot at a match at Moore Park. Here, again, the police had to rush in and stop the fight.