TRUE STORY OF WAIHI.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 72, 18 November 1912, Page 6

TRUE STORY OF WAIHI.

STRAIGHTENING OUT THE FACTS.

(Per Press Association.) Waihi, November 18. The town is quiet and orderly. The men are all at. work this morning. Brakes, hitherto in use since the Waihi mine was re-opened, were abandoned. The exodus of Federationists still continues, a number leaving this morning by train. The latest report is that Constable Wade is improving. The worker, Robinson, who was shot in the leg, is still confined to tho hospital, though tho wound is nearly healed. Among the wild and impossible stories told by Federationists is 'one to the effect that the Miners’ Union Hall was seized by Arbitrationists, and the safe broken open and £24 to £3O extracted. The facts are that the Hall had been taken charge of by the only remaining trustee in the district, together with a number of financ.al members of the Waihi Miners Union who are holding the building in trust and safeguarding the Union’s property. The safe was opened by the police under the authority of a warrant in the presence of the Commissioner of Police and the Union’s banker. The lastnamed took charge of the cash-box, which contained rather over £IOO, and after counting the money in the presence of the others he lodged the money in the hank for safe keeping. The story of the seizure of the Union’s grocery supplies probably arose from the fact that a quantity of provisions consigned to the store, and which had been lying at the railway station, had .been taken charge of by those arbitration members who arc also financial members of the Waibi Miner’s Union. The reason for the action was because demurrage had been paid on the supplies, and by transferring them to the store considerable money was saved. The allegation that provisions were stolen from the store is absolutely without foundation, the fact being that the trustee, accompanied by others, visited and inspected the store with the object of seeing everything safe.