FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 26 January 1933, Page 4

FREEZING WORKS DISPUTE

“WATCHING” FREE, LABOURERS. WAITARA MEN CONVICTED. Ctrj Telegraph—Press Association,) NEW PLYMOUTH, Jan. 25. “The criterion whether the men were there out of idle curiosity or with the object of bringing pressure to hear on free labourers was their action subsequent to the time when they were advised by the police to disperse to their homes,” said Air. W. H. Woodward, S.M., in -the New Plymouth Police Court to-day, when convicting .several, former unionists of “watching” free labourers in their bunkhouse at the Waifcara freezing works on th& night of January 7. Previous prosecutions should have been a warning, he added. “While young men might be hotheaded, they do not suffer as much as married men concerned in troubles of this nature, and they should remember that. Where it has been shown that the defendants were warned to disperse and neglected to do so, there is a case to answer.’’

L. S. Waters was fined £lO, JacK » Hook £5, L. Dombroski and T. B. Ewens, junior, £2, T. Johnston was admitted to probation for a year, Peter Kawe and Kahei Karena were convicted and discharged, another case adjourned, and charges against eight others dismissed. During the disturbance the. hunkhouse was bombarded with stones, and two motor-cycles were smashed.