BOTTOM KNOCKED OUT OF WAIHI !

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3592, 3 August 1912, Page 7

BOTTOM KNOCKED OUT OF WAIHI !

TRADESPEOPLE IN DIRE STRAITS. CONCILIATION COMMISSIONERS INTERVIEWED. "YOU CAN’T BELIEVE HOW BAD THINGS ARE!” [PEE PEES 3 ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, Aug. 2. Messrs J. A. Triggs and P- Hally, the two Conciliation Commissioners who have been making inquiries into the condition of affairs at Waihi, returned- to Auckland last night. Both Mr Triggs and Air Hally will go south by the express to-night, their report now being ready for consideration by the Minister. Air Triggs explained to a reporter this morning that their mission was not in any way to attempt to effect conciliation, but to secure first-hand information and to make a minute investigation with the object of presenting a comprehensive report on the situation to the Department. “Of course we can’t tell you what is. in •our report,” he said, “but you people here in Auckland would be astounded to see this state of affairs; in Waihi to-day. I c-ould not have believed it if I had not seen it for nivself.”

It was very noticeable, said Mr Hally at another stage of the interview. that there was a great deal of reserve shown on the part of the Minors’ Union. There was an attempt which seems to have been habitual right through to withhold information regarding the true state of affairs. _ At the same time lioth Commissioners made it quite clear that the information which had been placed at their disposal had left not a dark corner in the whole of the present situation at AVaihi. They had taken statements from all classes of the community—from about 60 people altogether—and although the Union was not officially represented, individual miners had come forward to give testimony. Everyone had been affected by the strike." Everyone was suffering. Tradespeople in particular were in dire straits.

“The bottom has been knocked out of AVaihi,” thev said. “You can’t believe bow bad things are!” “Fancy.” said Air Hally, “'grown men walking about in a civilised country with pistols in their pockets!” He explained, in answer to a reouest for fuller particulars, that some AVaihi men —engine-drivers they'were —carried pistols about because they feared personal violence from the unionist strikers.

The town was half empty, the Commissioners went on to sav. and there were cases where penile had sold valuable houses and furniture for a few pounds. Cases of distress were numerous and the hcroital was full. One woman bad lost her child from diptherla due., it was alleged, to the stoppage of the water supply for flushing purposes. The sickness that filled the hospital was stated to be the result ef distress and hardship directly due to the strike. Attendance at the school had fallen away greatly, whole families having left the town and the technical school might just as well close up for all the scholars there were seeking instruction. The Commissioners, in conclusion, remarked that they could see little chance of tile strike being ended while funds were available for the strikers.