BAD BAY AT WAIHI

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 88, 10 October 1912, Page 2

BAD BAY AT WAIHI

m SERIOUS MISCONDUCT OF WOMEN ALLEGED ATTEMPTED ASSAULT WITH • A HAT* PIN WORKER ATTACKED. tax IXLESBAFH— -flnOlAtr TO THI POBT.) ' WAIHI, This Day. The Waihi crowds were 'distinctly uglier and .nastier yesterday afternoon than they have been almost at any time during the recent more strenuous stages of the' strike period. The objectionable manner in which the women have been habitually conducting themselves has been already referred to. Experienced police officers (arid the -force at present stationed in Waihi includes men who have served in the large towns of England, Scotland, and Ireland) declare that they have never heard anything 'like it from women and girls. Yesterday afternoon matters became worse than they have been. In the crowd that assembled at the junction of the mine road with the public road" there was a deliberate tendency to open defiance of the police in their patient and tactful efforts to preserve some semblance of order and of propriety. Men against whom prosecutions are pending boldly shouted insulting epithets and boohooed brazenly. The men stood at the back of the women. New tactics are now adopted -with a view to overcoming the obstacle presented by the use of vehicles for the conveyance of the workers. Large crowds assemble at the gates of different workers and await their home-coming. Long before the vehicles, arrive women and children assemble in large numbers, and utter offensive words and epithets at the houses of the workers, the remarl^s being presumably intended for the ears of those within. It is shocking to hear girls of tender years yelling frightful .abuse, while their mothers aid and abet l them, and grown-up men stand in the background and Teg'ard it as "good enough for the scabs.' Two such incidents as thes© were personally observed thisafternoon, and it made one wonder where it was all going t,o end. ' ,*. SENSATION CAUSED. ' There was another particularly bad incident, which has created a great sensation. The chief actor was a prominent ccpntractor and. thoroughly quajified miner, whose fearless contempt for the etrjkers has been previously commented upon. He had left the brake containing his fellow-workers at the foot of a side road leading to his home. Nearin^ his gate he was met by his two little girls, who came running to "meet him, and he took the youngest up in his arms.' Meanwhile several hooting women who had followed him caused him no concern. One of them, however, rushed at him with" a hatpin, which she had doubled over to make a handy .weapon of, a couple of inches of sharp point having been left clear. He swung sideways to save his child, and held out his leg 'to guard off the infuriated female. She stumbled over bis foot, \ and the hatpin fell to the ground, no be grapped up by a spectator and afterwards handed to the police. As the miner stooped to put his child on" the ground the woman struck him on' the back with a stone, and she had another (a large one) in her hand, when he turned and wrenched- it from her grasp. A male picket took the chance to give the worker a blow in the face. This was returned with interest, and thert* was a melee and numerical odds against' the worker before the police came on the scene -and the incident closed. The woman has)laid an information against the miner for assaulting her, and the facts will be duly laid before the Magistrate. It is said that the woman drew^a eeo ond hatpin before being finally dragged clear of trouble. This is the third occasioni on which it is known that hatpins have been used by women in Waihi. , Reporting on the. hatpin incident, a constable who arrived on - the scene a few minutes after its occurrence, 'stated that he was asked by a man named Sam ; Gregory to arrest' James Delaney, mining contractor. Gregory alleged that Delaney had assaulted his ' stepdaughter, Jessie Beames, but admitted that he had not himself seen the incident. Jessie Beames informed the constable that she had been following Delaney home, and had been calling him "scab." Delaney had then, she said, turned and kicked her on the right leg. The constable noticed some mud on the woman's dreßS extending halfway down to the Ankle. In the circumstances he did "not arrest Dolaney. In a statement to the police, an eyewitness said:— "l saw Delaney cording from the direction of" Moresby-avenue into Has^ard-street. He was carrying a child on his arms, and as he approached his home I saw a woman who [ now know as Jessie Beames, insulting him by repeatedly calling out 'scab.' She then rushed at Delaney with a hat, pin in her hand, and said, ' I'll run you through with a hatpin.' As soon as Delaney saw the woman rushing him lie put out his left foot to prevent her running on to him. She ran on to him and called out, ' You've kicked me.' She drew another hatpin and then picked up a stone and threw it at Delaney, striking him on the back. He put dowh his child, and the woman then threw another stone, which hit him about the chest. Then a man rushed in on Delaney, and there was a rough and tumble on the ground, and a second man attacked Delaney from the back. , A third man then came along and got hold of Delaney, and said, 'That's enough Jim, come home.' I took the child down to its mother, as there was danger of its being trampled on."