The Waihi Outrage

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 88, 22 November 1912, Page 4

The Waihi Outrage

CRIME CONDONED BY THE PARR PERSON AND THE PARTISAN PRESS. What can be said of papers and persons with such a mental twist as to condone the outbreak of dingo ferocity on the part of the Wnihi scabs and strikebreakers, with all its adjuncts of burglary and battery, pillage and plunder, persecution and pack-hunting, on the perverts' plea that the strikers and •.'he Federation were entirely answerable therefor? All tho press and public apologists for the crime know it was a dastardly outrage, describe it, as such; know, too, that tho Wai hi scabs., sanctioned and aided by the police, were the perpetrators —but the Federation must be made tho scapegoat! Even Parr, the Mayoral pigmy of Auckland, referred to it as ''a dastardly outrage," by which "tho whole community will be stirred." But did he rise up in righteous indignation and demand that immediate steps should bo taken to punish the burglars and bludgeoners—that all the agencies of the law should be put into operation to bring them to justice? Nay, nay. On the contrary, al! his eloquence was splenetically expended against "ths meuhods and doctrines of the Socialist-Anarchi&t eleni ;,it in rhis country " nnd "a few lawless agitators who fe:ir neither God nor man/ These wore the blood-stained and the crime-guilty. "An awful responsibility rests upon these so-called Labor leaders," said Parr the Paralogist. "It is they, and they nlone, who have stirred up men's passions and caused the tragedy of to-day. I said six months ago, and I say again, the Government must take steps to safeguard, the peace of the community from these irresponsible feather-heads. Anarchy must- be puu down with a strong hand."

"Irresponsible feather-heads!" if, during the pabt six months, Parr had had a hundredth part of the responsibility of the men w horn he so virulently maligns, the slender cord of reason he possesses would have snapped in twain like a dried twig between one's fingers, and he would have presented even a far more pitiable spectacle of gibbering lunacy than he' now exhibits—and God knows that is pitiable enough, in all conscience. Were it not that we might bo accused of incitement to insecticide, we should say without hesitation that "Pa.rr must be put down with a strong hand," though such a feather-head is he that it would seem almost impossible to lay a hand on him to put him down. He's liko a piece of fluff floating hither and tihither in the air that a child tries vainly to grasp. The wonder is ho hasn't long since been wafted by the winds of Fate to the regions of Oblivion.

Then, nearly all the "rags" in the Dominion are screaming in chorus to the same effect as the Parr person, though none has any term for the diabolicul misdeeds of the scabs during their attack of rabies other than "a dastardly outrage." Some of our country exchanges have caught our attention. Here's a sample sentence from the "Wairoa Bell": "After a long and fruitless struggle in an unjust quarrel the Federationists have in their rout resorted to mongrel methods, and we have the sad spectacle of the spilling of blood." Substitute the word "Arbitrationists" for "Federationists," and the "Bell"would have struck a, note that rang with the truth. Ag it is, its tinklings throughout are the tintinnabulations of tergiversation.

The "Fielding Star's" sub-leader on the incident is headed "Arrant Cowards." This rare specimen of journalistic effulgence, works itself up into quite a frenzy about the cowardice and blackguardism of ihrs strikers, but has nary a word for the greater cowardice and blackguardism of the grab workers. Some sentences nra illuminating. After observing that it does not blame the strikers for fleeing from the "just wrath" of the scabs, it goes on to say that the shooting "is another proof that the class of men who fomented the strike so openly woukl stick at nothing to gain their ends. Yet, with all their cowardice and blackguardism, there would be little of this sort of thing in that connection if men like Semple and Co. were dealt with specially by the law. . . It is tirae to consider whether stronger measures ought not to be taken against the arrant cowards who stir tip and encourage the industrial strif© and quickly make themselves scarce when there is any prospect of their advice being acted upon."

'Twould be a pity to obscure the dazzling brightness of the "StarV 1 scintillations by any comment on our part. They arc to tho powers that be and the idolaters of law and order us a beaconlighfc to the storm-tossed marirur.

The Wellington "Evening Post" has an equally wooden ncniesake in the Stratford "Evening Post." They arc evidently slabs from tlie one troetrunk. Under the heading of "The AYaihi r-lio Stratford shoot holds tip the "dnstrrrdiy shontiriK" as ''a very solemn warning to the rest of the Dominion," but it is silent on the dastardly bludgeoning of the dead

striker, the assault on the hall, and all the subsequent criminality of the. blacklegs. No! it has only abuse for the agitators who "slunk away" in the hour of the miners' need and a howl that "law and order must prevail." Beg pardon—iti shrieks that "the sternest measures must be taken to prevent tho possibility of the recurrence of euoh a cowardly outrage as Waibi has now witnessed." "Cowardly outrage," mark you! Anon the paper refers to the crinio as "this culminating act of madness."' Yet there is no word of condemnation in tho article for the cowardly outragers or the madmen, but only innuendo that it was all the work of the agitator. "The Post" has the fullest commendation for "the magistrate who has upheld the law so fearlessly" and "the Government that has supported him," while "the action of the police throughout has been a credit to the country they have served so fearlessly and well," and it concludes with the hope that "some legislative restraint may yet be placed on the agitator: a limit to the freedom of speech must ba fixed when that liberty becomes mere license to provoke to murder." Alas! that agitators should have fought and bled and died for the freedom of a press which has produced in these modern days such a degenerate, tyrannyloving representative as the Stratford "Evening Post."

Happily, not all the papers of the Dominion are so lost to all sense of fairness as those we have already quoted. Perhaps the fairest, editorially, of the "big" papers in the,four chief cities is the "Lyttelton Times," of Christchurch, from whose article on " The AVaihi Disorders" we make the following extract:—"The outburst of violence that is reported from Waihi is utterly deplorable, and calls for prompt and firm repression. It is no excuse for the aggressors among the worker* that they have simply carried to its logical conclusion the method of argument which has been preached and practised by the strikers. . . . Their offence is at least as serious as that of the strikers who went to jail rather than give pledges of peaceable behaviour. Wβ can only hope that the law will vindicate itself quickly.' . Again, some unknown friend has cent us a copy of tho "Temuka News," which we do not remember to have seen before. "The Waihi Tragedy" is the familiar heading of its editorial. It i« an eminently fair and just presentment of the case, and only for pressure on space we would give it full quotation. However, the following excerpts must suffice : "The outstanding feature of the whole sad business was the complete incoropotency of uhe- police to exhibit their prowess on the side of law and order when it was really wanted. . . We cannot shut our eyes to the glaring truth that in the midst of so many determined, public assaultsj over one hundred policemen failed to ©ffecfo a single arrest. It would now be interesting to know what the police premeditate doing to those triumphant gentlemen who are reported to be issuing summary orders to other folk to 'clear out within 48 hours, or a broken head.' Prior to yesterday there were 60 men in jail who went there because they failed to find a bond to keep the peace; not to 'boo' any further. Now, we have open threats, and no action taken

What the Massey Government has been doing it is difficult to gay, but such a rare display of masterly inactivity in face of a> growing problem has, perhaps, been unparalleled in the history of the Dominion. . . . To-day the newspapers are again prophesying that the Waihi strike and the Federation are as dead as a door-nail. venture to disagree, and express the belief that the misguided official control of recent happenings at Waihi has commenced an era of regrettable labor unrest and bitterness in this Dominion."

The "Temuka News" may not be a very influential paper, but it is courageous and dispassionate, and we thank it for the justness of its article. Will they let it live? As for its concluding prophecy, the workers have a long memory for injustice and oppression. A reckoning will come soon or late, mark you, Messieurs Massp.y, Herdman, Cullen, Mine-owners, Employers' Federation and Scabs. Waihi has sounded the political and economic death-knell of you and your tribe. The workers are strong, and Truth and Justice are on their side. Into the war, everybody 1