The fortnight the trams drove with wire-netting over the windows

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 11

The fortnight the trams drove with wire-netting over the windows

Violence and bitterness marked the tramway strike in Christchurch during the Depression. But the history books have little to say about matters such as these. KEN COATES writes of the efforts the industrial unions are now making to record past events.

It was May 6, 1932, and New Zealand was in the grip of the Depression: Christchurch streets were patrolled by police and “special constables”— businessmen, their clerks, students and Rugby club members —equipped with batons and steel helmets. It was the third day of the tramwaymen’s strike. Against a background of dismissals, wage cuts, tougher conditions, rationing of labour to save wages and employment of volunteers on the trams, tramway industrial relations had steadily worsened. A Citizens’ Associationdominated Tramway Board announced the dismissal of 12 men — six motormen and six conductors on grounds of retrenchment. Two of the sacked men were union executives, including the president, Mr Jock Mathison, and this really put the cat among the pigeons. Thus on May 4, 1932, began the Christchurch tram strike which was to last for a bitter and sometimes violent two weeks. ft was winter, and a time of severe hardship when thousands of men were out of work. All but 39 of the union’s 368 members joined the

strike. They were handed dismissal notices, but already the Tramway Board had advertised for volunteer motormen, bus drivers and conductors. Many desperate unemployed men with no tramway experience applied for jobs and got them. Trams ran only during the day on a reduced time-table. The atmosphere was tense and feeling against the “scab” motormen and conductors high. A tram was stopped on the Opawa line when the pole was yanked off the overhead wire and a fuse box broken open. Nails were strewn on the trolley bus route at New Brighton, and near Heathcote, 15 men with coat collars pulled up and hats pulled down, leapt a fence and seized control of a tram, damaging a switch. On the third day, hundreds of strikers, armed with iron bars and stones, tried to storm the tram sheds. They attacked the Sumner tram, the first out, smashing windows and attempting to stop it. But several hundred police and citizens hurriedly sworn in as “special police” raced out from the sheds and beat back the men, “using their feet on shins and fists on faces,” according to one newspaper report. Sixteen men were arrested and trams were give police escorts. That afternoon, the strikers marched from the

Trades Hall to Cathedral Square where they were joined by many jobless men and some women. Singing the “Red Flag” and jeering at volunteers on the trams, the crowd clashed with police. “Drawn batons in the hands of more then a score of constables effectively quelled what promised to develop into an ugly riot,” it was reported. The next day, a Saturday, the strikers’ target was the Christchurch Rugby Football Club, declared "black” because some of its members had acted as temporary constables against the strikers. During the senior match at Lancaster Park, between Christchurch and Merivale there were constant jeers and shouts of “tin-hats” and “scabs.” After the game, strikers and police again clashed when tram windows were broken and the Christchurch team was mobbed by a large crowd surging around the gates. The police hurriedly drove a black maria into the grounds, rescued members of the team by urging them into it, and drove them into the city. Businessmen with shops who were suspected of having acted as special constables were threatened, and the front windows of a cycle shop in Lichfield Street were smashed. Those arrested in angry confrontations were

brought before the Magistrates, and more than 30 were sentenced. Among them was a young married woman, a former nurse, charged with inciting lawlessness. The Tramway Board ran trams in the evenings and placed fine-mesh wire netting over ail windows to ward off stones and other missiles. Eventually the strike ran its course when it was ruled that the board should select 60 men from among new employees. This meant that 52 unionists lost their jobs — a serious defeat for the union. But at the next triennial elections, not one of the sitting Citizen members was re-elected to the Tramway Board, and a new Labour majority took control. This included Mr Jock Mathison, by now a city councillor; and the union’s former vicepresident, J. S. Barr. All this makes fascinating reading, sketchy though the details are. Although it happened within the lifetimes of many, there is little in the history books dealing with these stirring times. Even newspaper reports are superficial, couched as they are in general terms, with little background on the decisions made, and few real insights into issues or human problems. A concerted effort is being made in Canterbury to preserve early trade union and other records. A committee on archi-

val resources has been set up to ensure available material is adequately stored and preserved. It includes representatives of the Canterbury Public Library, Canterbury Museum and the University of Canterbury Library — the three main depositories for archives. While all already have a wide variety of historical material, the public library has accepted special responsibility for city council and local authority records, the museum for historical material relating to early Canterbury, and the university library for trade union and business records. Len Richardson, a history lecturer, and chairman of the sub-committee on labour history, said that too often trade union records are destroyed without due regard for their historical importance. He also points out that the history of New Zealand has been written for Government records. Already the university library has accepted records from the Canterbury Carpenters’ Union dating back to 1880, as well as material from the Plumbers’ and Gasfitters’ Union and the Bricklayers’ and Plasterers’ Union. Mr Jack Clough, secretary of the Carpenters’ Union, considers this an excellent arrangement, particularly as his union is moving its offices into

new premises from the old Trades Hall in March or April. “If we had a fire, the whole lot could be lost; and, in any case, records deteriorate when not in proper storage,” he said. The Carpenters' Union, like most others in New Zealand, began under charter from the parent trade union in Britain. Among its records is an elaborate, coloured scroll, of the kind given to each member in the early 1900 s when he was admitted to membership. Mr R. W. Hlavac, the university librarian, said: “We are developing staff and facilities to handle material of this type, which will remain the property of the union, organisation or individual concerned. All will be sorted and catalogued.” There is air conditioned, temperature-con-trolled space in the university’s new library for early records which will be fumigated where necessary. Already some interesting relics have turned up, including early maps of the Waiuta gold mine which were found in an old safe in the area. Most of the maps are falling to pieces through age and damp, and the university will have them photographed. “We are ready to consider anything, including manuscript material, and we undertake to advise people of its value,” Mr Hlavac said.