The Week at Waihi.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 87, 15 November 1912, Page 3

The Week at Waihi.

Position Virtually Unchanged

Semple and Webb Speak on the Situation

[NOTE.—Our Waihi report is written about a week before it reaches our readers.]

The position at Waihi is virtually unchanged since last week. In all, 12 miners have gone in to scab this week, three of whom are doing repair work at the Junotion mine. As these individuals were expected to take this course all along, and were likely to do more harm outside than in, no one regrets the action they have taken up, and the man in the street derives much satisfaction by being able to say, "I told yon so."

The companies are not manifesting any desire to take on others uhan experienced miners and mechanics, and as far as the former are concerned not even the inducements they aro being offered will persuade miners to scab. Of course, allowance must always beJ made for a few crawlers through whose veins creeps mean, abjecb, slave blood. From all accounts the officials of the Waihi Goldmining Co. are heartily sick of the whole affair, and let it be noted to the credit of the scabs that they evince no suggestion of overtaxing their physical resources. The I.W.W. The mine officials state that they do not object to unionism, but anything pertaining to tho I.W.W. gives them cold shivers. No member of that awful organisation will ever be permitted the inestimable pleasure of careering down their dirty, twisted, wet, slimy shafts. Well, perhaps not, but the I.W.W. is growing, and though some of its members might be willing to forego the pleasure, yet others might be more insistent. It is evident* the boss is up against the 1.W.W., and if you hear Unity Schemers and others, who ought to know better, denouncing the 1.W.W., I presume, if you are an intelligent wageslave, you will'be able to form a shrewd guess as to where such fakirs belong. The Federation Officers. On Wednesday evening Messm. Webb, Semple, and Fraser arrived in Waihi, and a meeting of miners and their womenfolk was held at 7.30. Tho Union Hall being too small, the Kind's Theatre was utilised to accommodate the crowd, and even this was insufficient, many being ainable to gain admission. The audience was most enthusiastic, but the speakers have of!<on been hoard to better advantage. When men are continually addressing meetings, they are bound to have their "off-nights" now and then. (Let mc here admit they made amends the following Sunday evening.)

Mr. H. Kennedy presided at the meeting, and Messrs. Webb and Semple were the speakers.

Mr. WEBB spoko first, and gave an account of his mission to Australia, saying that the militant workers of that country were with us, as had been amply demonstrated, despite the treachery of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council and some other time-servers. He complimented the workers of Waihi on the fight they were putting up, and said that, despile all the forces brought against them the future looked bright.

Mr. SEMPLE tnen gave a lengthy address, paying a tribute to the men who had gone to jail, and after dealing with the press, the police, and some other institutions that capitalism uses to hypnotise society, he gave an account of a deputation that had approached the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. According to the account given by Semple, this procedure ought to be very edifying to the slaves.

The speaker then dealt at some length with the Waihi and R-eefton situations, and said he had just received an intimation from Mr. Rhodes in which that worthy declined a challenge to debate the points at issue. (The writer is of opinion, however, that the class struggle, or any part of it, is not likely to be decided in public debate.) The audience gavo unstinted applause to both speakers, and Webb and Semple must have felt that the newspaper accounts of the despondency in Waihi were somewhat overdrawn. At Walklno. On Friday afternoon the Federation President and Organiser went to Waikino to view the position there, and on waiting for the train on their return they were treated to an object-lesson of the disinterestedness of the police. Two mounted policemen, noticing them at the station, sent about 50 scabs to give them a "rally," but beyond giving an exhibition of what prehistoric man was like in the lower status of savagery, the smellful ones did no harm. Saturday's " Riot." On Saturday morning a union meeting was held, at which Webb and Semple again spoke. In the evening at 9 o'clock the police staged one of the best acts they have yet submitted to a Waihi audience. They marched one or the scabs up and down the street, and the crowd co-operated with their wishes to the extent of following the scab. When a sufficient crowd had gathered six mounted Cossacks galloped up the street and did their best to ride down the people. Not content with sweeping them off the street, one of the Cossacks got on the pavement, and it was nothing short of marvellous that there was not a big injured list.

This mounted Cossack also kept telling tho crowd he would "put the lead into them."

I have frequently seen mounted police move crowds by backing their horses towards thorn at a walking pace, but this is tho first instance in which I have seen policemen gallop into a crowd in the street, to say nothing of the pavement. New Zealand is advancing some. - SUBSTITUTE FOR THE REBEL.