DISGRACEFUL SCENE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8329, 15 January 1913, Page 8

DISGRACEFUL SCENE

FUNERAL PARTY JEERED BY FEDERATIONISTS,

Special to the “Times.” AUCKLAND, January 14.

A Waihi telegram published here states that three members of the W aihi Catholic dub and one Thames man (a relative of the deceased), who had been attending the funeral of the late William Sullivan, killed at Ponsonby, complain of treatment received at the hands of a mob of federationists at the Auckland railway station previous to hoarding the train. It is stated that a striker (a member of the committee of the old union), accompanied by thirty or forty companions, accosted one of the party, who is a member of the union, shook bis fist, and referred to him as a “scab” and “mongrel,” also making sneering reference to his coming down to attend the funeral. Others of the party also called out “scab,” etc. The police were sent for, but the chief offender had vanished. THE SCENE AT AUCKLAND.

The message sent from Waihi gives a very fair idea of what actually happened at the Auckland Railway Station, but it leaves an impression that the forty or fifty men who showed hostility had assembled on the station for that purpose. As a matter of fact the mild outburst of feeling on the railway station was due to the effect of keen disappointment on men who do not habitually practise self-restraint, either in thought or in speech. The party of forty or fifty men were for the most part members of the Waterside Workers’ Union, who had gone up to the railway station to witness the departure of Harvey for Waihi by the Thames express. As a matter of fact Harvey was at that time appearing at fie Auckland Police Court, to bo subsequently remanded to appear at Waihi in about a week’s time; but those people who proposed to give him a “send-off” concluded that the police had hatched some special scheme to spirit him away quietly. It is interesting to note here that the same men were quite satisfied that no wireless message was received to announce the probable time of arrival of the Maheno on Sunday simply to keep them in the dark. When the time of departure of the Thames train drew near the waiting “friends” of Harvey allowed their feelings to_ get the better of them, and they vented their animosity on the first object that offered a reasonable excuse. Messrs T. G. Martin (vice-president) and J. Ritchie, as representatives from the Waihi Catholic Club, had come from Waihi to attend the funeral of the late William Sullivan, who had been president of the club. At the funeral there was a representative gathering of about 300 ex-Waihi workers and miners. Relatives of the dead man were also on the railway platform as the Thames train was ready to go out. All these things were forgotten, however, and nothing was remembered for the time being except that Martin was an antifederationist and that Ritchie’s father and brothers were also anti-federa-tionists. They were jeered and called “scabs,” and the federation sympathisers so far forgot themselves as to taunt these comrades of the dead man with being “a nice pair of mongrels to come from Waihi to bury a man.” The situation was painful in the extreme, with the dead man’s relatives as witnesses of it. Messrs Parry, McLennan, and Canham were on the platform at the time, but in common with quit© a number of others took no part whatever in the, demonstration.