PATEA LABOUR TROUBLE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 9

PATEA LABOUR TROUBLE

FRICTION BETWEEN PARTIES

FREE LABOURERS VISIT DANCE.

PARTY PARADES IN TOWN LATER.

ESCORTED AWAY BY CONSTABLE.

A dance organised by the Patea freezing works unionists on Saturday night was visited by a body of free labourers, who are alleged to have refused to leave when asked to do so, after it had been pointed out that the function was purely a union affair. On the arrival of Constable Kelly the free labourers left.

Free labourers' paraded the town in a large party later.' As the Saturday night shopping crowd thinned some minor incidents.. occurred in the streets. One party of free labourers was escorted across the town bridge out of the borough and towards the works by Constable Kelly, who thought the party included the whole of those who were causing the trouble. When Constable Kelly returned to the station at 2 a.m. he learned that the party had returned, and further incidents occurred in the street, amongst groups, of men, several women and. a child. A party, desiring to avoid friction with the free labourers, sought sanctuary at the police station, being followed by the free labourers, who congregated outside the station. ‘ The trouble had subsided and the parties dispersed when Constable Kelly returned from a patrol of another area.

ALTERCATION AT CARTERTON.

FREE LABOURER SERIOUSLY HURT.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Masterton, Last Night. Two men were arrested and another was more or less seriously injured as a result of an altercation between a number of free labourers and striking slaughtermen Outside the Carterton Hotel yesterday afternoon. . . It appears that an argument developed between the i two factions in the bar ot the hotel and the participants adjourned to the street to settle the dispute. Blows were freely exchanged in the course of a brief but willing “mix-up” that followed and a Maori free labourer received injuries that wiR keep him away from work for several days. The police were soon on the scene and arrested a free labourer and a striker. Both were released on bail and will later appear in the Magistrate’s Court. Though feeling has been running fairly high during the past few weeks, this was the first outward sign of: trouble between .the free labourers at the Waingawa works and the striking unionists.