A DASTARDLY ACT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1167, 4 November 1913, Page 2

A DASTARDLY ACT.

FEDERATIONISTS SMASH RAILWAY WINDOWS.

AND PLACE OBSTRUCTIONS ON THE LINE.

A large number of flax-mill bauds at Tokomaru, members o', the Federation, attacked a train which left Palmerston at 10 o’clock on Saturday night, containing about xoo special men and workers. They broke the windows of the carriages with bottles and stones, and put a platform barrow across the line and a milk-can. The engine ran into and threw them aside, and no damage was done. Referring to the above and other dastardly and cowardly acts on the part of Red Fed. sympathisers the Dominion says:—"We had hoped that the Federation of Labour had learned its lesson, and that it would endeavour to check any further outbursts of mob violence amongst its iollovviug. Such has not been the case. Its leaders, after a brief respite, again yesterday indulged in that wild and inflammatory speechmaking which seems to act as a spur to the passions of the more ignorant of those who follow their guidance; and from various quarters come reports of cowardly acts of violence by large or small groups of members of the Red Federation and their friends. Stone-throwing has become the favourite method of attack, the cowardly fellows who practise this dastardly means of venting their malice, rushing for shelter at the first sign of reprisals from the mounted men. At Tokomaru a mob of flaxraill hands is reported to have stoned a train supposed to contain special constables from the country districts, and to have behaved in a perfectly outrageous manner, even going the length of placing an obstruction on the railway line. These various offences mean a lengthy term of imprisonment for those committing them, and it is satisfactory to learn that in the cases as Tokomaru, as well as in many crses in the city, there is every prospect of many of the offenders being in due course made to answer for their breaches of the law. The misguided men ap pareutly are foolish enough to think that because they are not at once arrested they have escaped detection and punishment. Their time will come.”