JUDGE ADMITS HE TOOK PART IN A STRIKE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18578, 28 September 1928, Page 11

JUDGE ADMITS HE TOOK PART IN A STRIKE

MAKES STATEMENT BEFORE JUSTICES. (Special to the “Star.”) AUCKLAND. September 28. A possible reason why he had been chosen as President of the Arbitration Court was suggested by Mr Justice Frazer in a frank confession to a gathering of Justices of the Peace last evening. “ Possibly it may have been because I took part in a strike when I was ten years of age,” he said. With the maritime strike of 1899 prominently in their minds, the schoolboys of his day from the Albany Street, Union Street and George Street Schools in Dunedin “ got the strike microbe.” and set up a strike committee. They presented to the head masters certain demands, chief among which was that there were to be no home lessons. The demands were rejected, somewhat to the boys* dismay, but the George Street schoolboys promptly went on strike. They went up a hill at the back of the school, and refused to come down. The authorities took no notice of them, and the strike was declared off the next day. “ I do not know whether I should have made that confession to this audience, but it is so long ago that possibly I may be forgiven,” added his Honor.