ECHO OF THE WAIHI STRIKE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3071, 22 January 1913, Page 9

ECHO OF THE WAIHI STRIKE.

DISTURBANCE ON AUCKLAND STATION. (Thom Odb Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 14. An echo of the Waihi strike is reported in the Star. The Waihi correspondent of that paper writes: “A number of the ‘scarlet runners,’ who became so notorious during the recent strike demonstrations assembled at the railway station yesterday in anticipation of the arrival or Walter Edmund Harvey by the 5 o’clock train, but they were doomed to disappointment as Harvey did not put in an appearance. One of the Waihi Companies’ brakes happened to pass by with some arbitrationists aboard, and these greeted, the ‘runners with ironical cheers. The latter responded with the old time yells of ‘scab ana dirty mongrels.’ If these gatherings are permitted to take place further trouble is likely to ensue. _ “Three members of the Waihi Catholic Club and one Thames man (a relative of the deceased) who had been attending the funeral of the late Wm. Sullivan, killed at Ponsonby, complained of the treatment received at the hands of a mob of federation ists at the Auckland Railway Station yesterday morning. Previous to boarding the train a striker- {a member of the committee of the old union), accompanied by 30 or 40 companions, accosted one of the party, who is a member of the union, shook nis fist and referred to him as a ‘scab’ and ‘mongrel,’ and also made sneering reference to the fact of 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. It is understood that the police have the matter in hand. Two officials of the Federation of Labour were on the platform at the time.” Messrs T. J. Martin (vice-president) and J. Ritchie had come from Waihi as representatives from the Waihi Catholic Club to attend the funeral of the late William Sullivan, who had been president of the club. As a matter of fact Messrs Martin and Ritchie had acted as pall-bearers at the funeral, at which also there was a representative gathering of about 300 ex-Waihi workers and miners. Relatives of the late William Sullivan were also on the railway Elatform. All these things were forgotten, owever, and nothing was remembered for tka time being except that Martin

was an auti-federationist, and that Ritchie’s father and brothers were also anti-federationists. To some extent they were jeered and called “scabs,” and the federation sympathisers actually so far forgot themselves as to taunt these comrade? 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, M’Lennan, and Canham were on the platform at the time, but in common with quite a number of others, took no part whatever in the demonstration.