Some Australians were ''beaten'' for a few piastres by the inhabitants of a shop in a disreputable quarter of the town, and, having been joined by other soldiers, the party commenced to wreck the building.
Within an hour the ''Bull Ring'', as this quarter is known, was a seething mass of humanity. The soldiers included Australians, New Zealanders, English Territorials, and men from Ceylon. The next four hours presented a scene which is indescribable.
The troopers entered hundreds of flats occupied by doubtful characters, and out of the windows all sorts of articles were thrown - chiffoniers, mirrors, tables, chairs, beds, and all kinds of furniture.
A piano was dropped from a third floor window to the street below, where the furniture was gathered and made into a huge bonfire.
The pickets, mounted and foot, quickly appeared, but against so many were powerless. The city fire brigade arrived, but their hose was cut, and they beat a quick retreat. The permanent police used their revolvers on the marauding troops, which only made things worse.
The pickets discharged blank cartridges, but the soldiers quickly recognised the difference from ball cartridges, and took no notice. Several troopers were shot in the affray, but the extent of the casualties is not known.
• The chrysanthemum has been aptly designated ''Summer's last smile'', and with the approach of the dull months of the year, the varied colours of this popular flower are making the city and suburban gardens gay.
It is one of the most easily propagated garden flowers in cultivation, and as far as the disposition of its growth and the size and quality of the blooms are concerned, there is probably no plant more accommodating.
The everyday gardener, with ordinary cultivation, can produce blooms, which are invaluable for home decoration at this last period of the growing season, while the enthusiastic exhibitor, of which Dunedin has many representatives, can, with skilful cultivation, conjure those monster blooms, a foot or more across, which are a striking feature at our Winter Shows.
The weather conditions during the past few weeks have been most favourable to the maturing of first class blooms, and the Dunedin Horticultural Society's efforts on Wednesday and Thursday to ensure an attractive and representative collection of beautiful chrysanthemums, seasonable flowers, and those delicious apples for which Otago orchardists are making a reputation, should meet with the hearty support of the public.
• During the hearing of a case of a man riding a bicycle on a footpath at Anderson Bay, counsel for the defendant (Mr D. Cooke) stated that although the defendant pleaded guilty of riding on what was termed a footpath, the Bay Town Board owed an apology to the court for calling it a footpath. The magistrate treated the case as exceptional, and simply convicted the defendant.
• Last week a deer was noticed in the ti tree scrub, on the coal reserve down the Tokomairiro River (says the Bruce Herald). As far as can be ascertained, this is the first time a deer has been seen in this district, and the mystery is how and where it came from.
- ODT, 18.5.1915.
