PUNISHING RIOTERS

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 537, 3 October 1902, Page 2

PUNISHING RIOTERS

The severe punishment meted out to the two shearers who forcibly detained non-union shearers who had been engaged to work at Corona station, New South Wales, will come as a still blow to the lawless element of strikes. In past years one of the strong points 01 policy of the more turbulent memuera of unions in regard to shearing strikes was the capturing of non-unionists and taking them as prisoners to the union camps. Indeed the last lug strike to a large extent was .•brought 10 a close by such tactics. The men brought in from New Zealand and other places were taken through the line of picquets by strong forces, but the stragglers to the stations could not run the gauntlet. When they would not yield to moral suasion they were seized by the strikers and conveyed to camp, where they were kept as prisoners, but not molested in any way. The outcome however, was that every “dead-neat throughout the country side made pretence of being a shearer who intended seeking work oil the stations, and m that way they succeeded in getting taken to the camp, where they aad nothilia* to do but talk about the rights of labor and enjoy the rations suppucu to them free by the unions. This class of men seldom had any idea ol shearing and would not take work ol any kind i/ they could live without. the unionists afterwards recognised that if they had allowed these “ dead-beats io proceed to the stations, the paMornlists would have had a difficulty not contemplated in connection with tie strike. The probability is that in the recent strike, any prisoners taken were known to be genuine shearers. lhe pcnalt ■’ inflicted on the two -unionists is certainly very severe, especially as the strike is now, done with, and it •hears* a remarkable contrast to the Friedman scandal, where a money-len-der was released after he had been put in gaol, on the verdict of a jury and the sentence of a judge.