WAIHI ECHOES

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14564, 15 January 1913, Page 7

WAIHI ECHOES

OUTBREAK OF " RED " HEAT,

FANNED BY DISAPPOINTMENT

(special to "tue press.")

AUCKLAND, January 1-1

A Waihi telegram published hero states that three members of the Waihi Catholic Club and ono Thames man (a relative of tho deceased) who had been attending the funeral of tho late William Sullivan, killed at Ponsonby, complain of their treatment at tho hands of a mob. of Federationists at the Auckland Railway Station. Previous to boarding tho train a striker (a member of the committee of the old Union), accompanied by 30 or 40 companions, accosted one ot the party who is a member of the Union, shook his fist and referred to him as a "scab" and a "mongrel," also making sneering reference to tho fact of his coming down to attend the funeral. Others of the party also called out "scab." etc. The polico wero sent for, but the chief offende-' had vanished. THE SCENE AT AUCKLAND. Tho message sent from Waihi gives a very fair idea of what actually occurred at tho Auckland Railway Station, but it leaves an impression that tho 40 or 50 men who showed hostility had assembled on the station for that purpose. As a matter of. fact the mild outburst of feeling on the railway station was due- to tho effect of keen disappointment on men who do not habitually practise self-restraint, either in thought or in speech. The party of 40 or 50 men were, for the most part, members of the Waterside Workers' Union who had gone up to the railway station to witness tho departure of Harvey for Waihi by the Thames expro -s. As a matter of fact Harvey was at that time appearing at tho Auckland Polico Court, to bo subsequently remanded to appear at Waihi, but these people who proposed to give him a "send off concluded that tho polico had hatched some special scheme to spirit him away quickly. It is interesting to note here that the same men wero quite satisfied that no wireless message was received to announce tho probablo time of arrival of the Maheno on Sunday, simply _to keep them in the dark as to tho time Harvey would arrive. They take themselves very seriously, and they seem to bo incapable* of realising that not one person in a thousand in Auckland knew or cared who Harvey was, or, for the matter of that, whether he was going to Waihi or to Waipukurau. When the time of the departure of tho Thames train drew near the waiting friends of Harvey allowed their feelings to get the better'of them, and they vented their animosity on tho first object that offered a, reasonable excuse. Messrs T. J. Martin (vice-president) and J. Ritchie as representatives from the Waihi Catholic Club, had come from Waihi to attend the funeral of the late William Sullivan, who had been president of tho Club. As the Thames train was ready to go out this was forgotten, and nothing was remembered for the timo being except that Martin was an anti-Fedorationist and- that Ritchie's father and brothers were also anti-Fed-erationists. To some extent they were jeered at and called "scabs," and the Federation sympathisers actually so far forgot themselves as to taunt these comrades of tho dead man with being "a nice pair of mongrels to come from Waihi to bury a man." Messrs Parry, McLennan and Canham were on the platform at the time, but in common with quite a number of others took no part whatever in the demonstration.