UPROAR REIGNED AT STUDENTS' MEETING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18418, 21 March 1928, Page 14

UPROAR REIGNED AT STUDENTS' MEETING.

SPEAKERS GREETED BY SHOWERS OF WATER AND OTriER MISSILES. Cascades of water, witty interjections, songs, and,, flour-bombs, as well as a continuous babel of nodae, were but a few of the things which combined to drown the voices of the speakers at the annual meeting cf the Canterbury College Students’ Association last evening. For the first hour of the meeting, there was a continuous uproar. As soon as the official party had taken their seats on the platform of the Canterbury College Gymnasium in which the meeting was held, they were assailed with pointed questions and still more pointed missiles. Pandemonium reigned for about five minutes. There were many students present and they made themselves heard. Those present numbered about 200, of whom about fifty were women students, these being seated in the body of the building, and thus out of the “firing line.” The chairman’s remarks were drowned in a babel of sound, and the speaker himself was almost drowned by the contents of a bucket, of water, which was released from the roof. The scheme was an ingenious one, a string being suspended from the roof and attached to the bucket of water. Considerable interest was then attached to the arrival in single file of about forty students who marched round the hall, finishing their tour on the platform. The singing of a song was stopped suddenly but effectively by an unappreciative audience. Flour-bombs were being thrown with deadly effect, and the chairman, after vainly attempting to restore order, threatened to adjourn the meeting and to eject the noisy element. The threat had its effect. For a moment the atmosphere was tense as a student strolled slowly up the aisle to the platform. The student was equal to the occasion, and after taking a copjr of the report which lay on the platform, he coolly strolled back to his seat. The incident relieved the situation, and for a while the meeting proceeded somewhat smoothly. The secretary in reading the annual report, was inaudible, but the students cheerfully adopted it. On a motion being put, everyone present called “Aye,” and then in a louder voice (if possible) called “No.” The chairman being used to this procedure, took the motions as carried. Apart from a few songs, interjections and other minor disturbances, the meeting was proceeding at a fair rate when a shower of nuts, flour, and other similar articles fell from the roof in a continuous shower. This aided b> r a rowdy commotion, among the students upstairs created an uproar which was ended by the chairman declaring the meeting adjourned for fifteen minutes. During this period, two students were carried out forcibly and ejected. The disturbers of the peace, who were reposing on the roof were removed, and all the rowdy element ejected. When the meeting resumed about one-third of the students had decamped, and the meeting proceeded quietly. Peace and order prevailed for the remainder of the meeting. There were many interjections, but they were of a humorous character only.