MOB IMPULSE

Northern Advocate, 11 February 1931, Page 7

MOB IMPULSE

THE AUCKLAND RIOT DISCONTENT BREAKS LOOSE. SHA T TER TNG- A TTA CKS. (■Special to "Northern Advocate.’') AUCKLAND, This Day. The ferocious spectacle impulsively staged by some of the workers in Queen Street yesterday represented one of the bitterest expressions of discontent that has been displayed in Now Zealand in connection with unemployment. Those who witnessed the fusillades of bricks flung at the police as they were milling about in the heart of the surging crowd have expressed amazement and thankfulness that so little damage was done. The furious throwers of the deadly missiles had the police as their target, but they showed an insensate indifference to the safety of the civilians, mostly unemployed. The assaults upon the Labour Bureau were extremely violent. The old railway station had recently been converted into offices for dealing with the unemployed, and had only been occupied by the bureau that morning. The several windows which had previously been used for selling tickets for the different lines had been utilised for breaking up the queue into A to D, E to H, and so on, which enabled the record clerks to deal with thousands of applicants for work, or registration, much more expeditiously than was hitherto possible. The place was as completely wrecked as it was possible to be from an outside assault with the missiles available, Blacks smashed through window after .window, to the deadly peril of the unoffending clerks behind them, until not a pane of glass remained. Doors and protective gratings were wrenched off, window sashes torn out and the office signs destroyed. It was an extraordinary demonstration of mob violence.

Cry Fur “Bricks.” Whilst the operators cannot be vindicated, any student of mob psychology may easily fihd explanation for the fierce outbreak. The management of the Unemployed Association must be exonerated from blame, A big procession had been arranged to accompany the deputation which waited upon the Unemployment Board, A -largo body of men waited outside the offices of the Department of Labour in perfect composure while their delegates interviewed the members of the board. The return to the chief post office was texeeuted with almost military precision. Tire leader then dismissed, the men, and the banners which had been carried were rolled up and carefully stacked behind a buttress of the building. It was at this stage that a short, elderly man began talking rather excitably about the event of the morning. According to bystanders, he was ' struck and handled with rough aggressiveness by the police, and the madness of the mob was instantly inflamed, Borne of the hot bloods in the crowd, who rushed in and clamoured for the release of the old man, were batoned, and as a. couple of arrested men, handcuffed together, were being bustled across the street pandemonium broke loose. A cry for “bricks” sent ten or fifteen young men flying down to a convenient heap, and the ghastly attack,upon the police began. "Where Blame Bests. However reprehensible the lawlessness of the men may have been, the Government and the Unemployment Board must bear their full share of responsibility for the situation that has been created. An Act was passed providing that, if the Government could uotfind employment for the impoverished workers, sustenance money would be paid to them. The day before the Prime Minister returned to New Zealand from the trip abroad the Unemployment Board made its declaration, and. actually fixed the date upon which sustenance payment would be made, and the day after his return Mr Forbes made the upsetting announcement that there would be “no easy money,” no

payment of money without work. Of course, the suggested policy of sustenance money was entirely unsound, but the promise was made and it buoyed up the hope of thousands who were on the bread line and of hundreds who were, and are, on the verge of starvation. Even when Mr Forbes shattered those hopes no general resentment was expressed, the very great majority of the men being apparently quite willing to work for the money they received. Bill the unfortunate operation of the Unemployment Bureau in Auckland, and the dilly-dallying of the Government and the Unemployment Board have filially produced the outburst which occurred yesterday.

Hundreds of men visited the bureau daily, had their visits recorded and were told to call again, "When those hundreds grew into thousands the work got beyond the office accommodation, and the announcement was made that the men must not call oftener than once a fortnight. A fortnight is an aeon of time to u workless man without money. But the climax came on Monday, when the men had been given to understand that there would be work for all, two days, three days cr tour days a week. Since Monday some two thousand eight hundred men have been provided for, but over two thousand have still to get an engagement.

It is not too much to say that every brick that was thrown registered disgust for broken promises and the furious indignation of the unemployed at the dilatoriness of the Government and the Unemployment Board in dealing with tliis pressing problem—an indignation, by the way, which is shared iby many thousands who are not out tof employment.