The Week at Waihi.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 86, 1 November 1912, Page 4

The Week at Waihi.

Tho general position here is better ihnn any of us expected. No miners are coming forward to scab, and it must bo disappointing to the mine-own-ers, after exhausting every channel, to find only a dozen miners ready to scab. A good many surface laborers and A.S.E. men have started at the Grand Junction property during the last few days, and as they ride to and fro in the brakes along with the Martha scabs they make tho show more imposing from a stranger's viewpoint. Those acquainted with the motley crew that comprise the brakeloads know that they are a source of weakness to their employers and not to the strikers. The scab list to date October 23 is as follows: — Miners 12 General workers 39 Scab engine-drivers 11 A.S.E. members 8 Carpenters 2 Total 72 This list does not include a polyglot crow of varying size that the Waihi Company runs daily from Waikino and back again. After the boys were tried, they were cooped up, the 23 of them, in space not sufficient for a dozen men, and there 'they remained for 34 hours before being sent to Auckland. So- stifling was the •atmosphere that on Friday night they were compelled to kick the walls of their cells until the police were compelled to open all the apertures to give them air. There was no valid reason why the men should not have been sent straight to Mt. Eden as soon as their trials concluded. They were sent by special train as it was.

Tho only reasons for their detention were that the authorities deemed thaii the suffocating torture of the cells would influence some of the men into signing i'be bonds in order to got out of it, but they badly misjudged the manner of men they were dealing with. The second reason was that the authorities were roost anxious to prevent any demonstration along the line and in Auckland. Information had come to hand that the men were to be taken away at 9 o'clock on Saturday night, and when the brakes dashed up at that hour there was a crowd of 2000 persons assembled to cheer the departure of the men we knew and loved. They were hurried into the brakes, and as they stood up and cheered the brakes started. The crowd cheered until they were hoarse, and a large section of it ran alongside the brakes to the railway station. As the crowd thinned out it was found that several of the wives of the departed men had fainted. They had remained up all the previous night, watching outside the jail gates, and now the exhaustion, excitement, and grief proved too much for them. It may be noted that nearly all the membors of this batch are married men with young families, though one veteran, J. Heath, has been married for over 20 years.

Special mention wants to be made of the five men from Karangahake included amongst the prisoners—namely, Millar, Barclay, Sarich, Rodiwall and Rogers. They came to Waihi to assist their fellow-workers to demonstrate against scabbery and when the master handed out the punishment they took it without flinching.

Twenty-three of our bravest and best are added to .our fellow-workers in jail and the effect upon those who remain behind is that they are more militant than ever.

Now everyone makes free use of tihe word "scab" when of the scaly creatures appears, and the authorities have made a new discovery—men and women for whom jail has no terrors, men and women who hand over their names without being asked for them. The women are simply splendid. It is not that the men are sheltering behind the women, as some of our parasitical vilifiers try to make out. No, the men are right in the front, but the women on some occasions outstrip them.

Well, fellow-workers, 66 of our mates and yours are lying to-night in jail; before this appears their numbers may be augmented. The length of their bondage will be determined largely by the protest you make—no, not on paper forms, but right on the job where you work. Exercise your intelligence in the manner that seems best to you, and your fellow-workers will be free before Iong.—SUBSTITUTE FOR THE REBEL.

Scab List last Week-End.

Vile Treatment of Union Prisoners.

could rest assured that if they surrendered one weapon another would be demanded of them, until finally they would even be debarred tho use of the streets while the scabs went to and from work. C. MATTHEWS .gave a rousing speech, dealing chiefly with the- event* of the past week, and devoted special attention to the police force, some degraded members of which, reproaches -on the rest .of humanity, had on the .rriday -night tortured' tsheir mates in jail by calling out to them through the walls unutterable things about their womenfolk. Then on the Saturday night, ..as the men were being rushed to the train on their way to jail, .he .had seen four "-Cossacks" trying to rid© a man .down aoid trample him underfoot, and the non-success of fcheir project was only duo to their bad horsemanship. Such tactics, however, defined the class struggle for us in its reality. We must expect no quarter and give none. Neither could we look in the law courts of capitalism for redress. But on the industrial field we held pome power, and with organisation we would amass more power, and on our returai to work in our own good time it was there he looked to the wiping out of all old sores. \

MES. HINCHLEY dealt clearly and effectively .with the boy scout naove.ment, showing it to bo a trick-to train the sons of the -workers to become the tools .and satellites of "the master; class. The only loyalty that ought to be inculcated in the workers' children is loyalty to their own class, and their salvation lay in banding together in the industries wiiere tirey ape exploited, and by means of their organisation shortening their hours of toil, •abolishing child labor, absorbing the unemployed, and so marching on to their goal until they were able to sound the death-knell of capitalism.

H. KENNEDY began by giving a good definition of a scab, claiming that a Boab had no excuse for existence. Akin to scabs were the blue-coated minions of tho law. Kennedy referred to a visit he had paid to the mine, during the week, accompanied by a shareholder, and had his audience in a happy mood describing the efforts of the cripples now working in Waihi to make a show of breaking up quartz. He said the man he had seen on the hammer looked like breaking one thing only— his mate's jaw—but, alas! he couldn't swing the hammer hard enough.

Executive-member P. PHASER, the concluding speaker for the evening, dealt briefly with the peaceful conduct of the strike, .a line of conduct that would not be departed from, despite the jibes of the employers «nd their tools. We would still go on using the word "scab," .and no sign of weakness would be allowed to manifest itself. Indeed, if necessary, we would break every law on the statutes, and after all, "the law-breakers of to-day are the law-makers of to-morrow." Supported in euch magn-i-ftoent fashion by our fellow-workers in New Zealand and Australia, we were bound to win and in his opinion the most acute stage of the struggle was already past.