OPINION ON WAIHI RIOTS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1667, 6 February 1913, Page 6

OPINION ON WAIHI RIOTS.

POLICE AND :OTIIER.MATTERS. \ ■ (By Mfffraph.—Social Oorftsponflent.) Wanflanul,. February 5,' Mr. W. J. Jordan, a well-known' man* . bcr of tho Wanganui Labour party, who ! lias just returned from a visit towaihi, ! has piven.a local pressman, tho result,'of, / his impressions of tho. mining town<, Ho :,[ had formerly lived thero, and knoi? tho men ou both sides in tho recent trouble. lie,says that ho has 110 bios 0110 way or the other. There are houses to lot 1 all over'tjio place, but business is rapidly reviving, and ho predicts tJiat/ as soon 1 as the water is got out of the lower levels of tho niine and a full number of hands havo been employed, tho (own will be as ; good as ever it was, if not better, i i Tho strike, ho adds,, left very ibi Iter 1 feeling, and oven divided families. Hie ■ women especially wfcro badly terrorised, It is undoubtedly the casts that tlioso who now 1 remain in tho town consider that tho sending of tho police was justified, . "Whatever may. 1» tho difference >- of opinion on this point," says Mr.' Jordan, "thero is no doubt whatever of th« able, way in wliicli Commissioner. Cullen handled tho situation when lie did g« there." ' • • All offences during tho strike had been in connection .with it only ; otherwise tho people law abiding. /The no\T union was going along well, and had now COO members, and the new- agreement twoon the men and the employees (which ; has been made into an award) is a splendid one. ' ■ ■ Tho effect of tho strike (says Mr. Jor. dan) lias been to quite destroy tho inflnenoo of tho Federation of Labour'as far as Waihi is concerned.