UNHAPPY WAIHI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1081, 10 August 1912, Page 3

UNHAPPY WAIHI.

CONCILIATION COMMISSIONERS VIEWS.

Mr P. Hally, Conciliation Commissioner, has noticed the temarks made by Mr Parry in the press with reference to the recent visit ol Mr Triggs, Christchurch Commissioner, and himself, to Waihi. “We were not authorised,” said Mr Hally, “to attempt a settlement, but to gather information tor the Minister of Labour. We gathered information, and it uas been forwarded to uhij Minister. Mr Parry,” be continued, “says that theie is no distress in Waihi. If he means no visible suffering of the people from want of proper shelter, food or clothing, he is right, but there is undoubtedly suilring on the part of the people which can be attributed to the strike. No doubt many of the miners foresaw what was coming, and when the mine was working they might have made provision for a period of enforced idleness, such as is being experienced. Besides, strike pay is coming regularly in week by week.”

The carrying of firearms was referred to. Mr Halley said that it was unquestionably done by some ot the Waihi residents. “Notwithstanding Mr Parry’s denial,” he said, “ I am quite prepared to substantiate what 1 said about firearms. Ido not only know they are, or were being carried, I saw them myself, and they were not carried for show. When I asked why they were carried, I was told by those who had them that they felt the need ,of something more powerful than hands to defend themselves in case ot emergency. They were, I learned, carried in self-defence. I would give the names of the people whom 1 met with firearms if it were necessary to do so. These people, I learned, constantly carried revolvers, because they went in fear of their lives in Waihi. Waihi was orderly, however, when I was there,” Mr Hally continued. “I saw no rowdyism and no boohooing, except on one occasion when some men came out of the Miners’ Hall alter a meeting, and saw two engine drivers working together. These engine drivers always go in couples for their mutual protection. I was told the language used by men coming irom the hall to the engine-drivers was, to say the very least ot it, provoking.” “I learned,” Mr Hally concluded, “ that there was a good deal of petty tyranny going on. The children ot engine-drivers were called 1 scabs 1 by the miners’ children, until the practice was promptly extinguished by the headmasters. The barbers who cut the hair of the engine-drivers suffered by the loss ot custom from miners on that account. Suspected people were followed about, and in one case a perfectly neutral party had his coal supply cut off because he incurred the displeasure of the ruling party in Waihi. The men are putting in their time quoit-playing or sittihg about the streets discussing the situation, when they are not attending meetings. With regard to the hospital, it was certainly full on the day I sawjt, Sunday, July 18. The Mayor was my informant, and he should. be a belter authority than Mr Parry. As to a child dying of diphtheria, that was clearly due to stoppage of the miue waters, which are utilised in flushing the drains of the town. This sanitary service is now automatically stopped so far as business is concerned. I kuow of two business places that have actually closed up in Waihi since the strike. The book debts amounted to ,£1,800.” ■