CRIME INSTIGATOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 3

CRIME INSTIGATOR.

I.W.W. APOSTLE AT WAIHI. SUNDAY SCHOOL TKACHINfI OX A XEW METHOD. A DISMAL PICTURE. t'hristehureh, August 7. A gentleman who has just returned from Waihi, in the course of a conversation with a Lyttelton Times reporter stated that there was at present in Waihi an American, a member of the Independent Workers of the World, who was conducting daily classes which he called '-Economic Classes." The speaker stated that he had attended one of these classes, and had heard the most wicked lecture he had ever heard in hig life. The lecturer advised the men ODe and all to work only when the employers were watching them, and to "take it easy" at all other times. Those who were working amongst machinery lie advised to carry emery powder about with them, and drop it into the oiled bearings', with the object of grinding the parts" of the machinery. He also advised them to drop a chisel into the machines as often as possible, to rip the cogs off the cogwheels. A plug of dynamite was a useful adjunct to their work, the lecturer stated, and it was to. their interests to do as much damage as possible to their employers' property. This man wag eonducting a Sunday school on these lines, teaching this devilish doctrine to little children, and mixing it up with teaching as to where God dwelt. He had a fairly large following, and his classes, which were held daily for men and on Sundays for children, were all well attended.

Referring to the general conditions at JVaihi. the visitor said that it would be almost impossible to conceive of any town being ruined to ' a-greater extent i than Waihi had been. It was at present held by some two hundred Socialistsanarchists, he called them—and these men controlled everything. They had pickets who dogged the footsteps of all strangers to the town. If anyone rose at any of their meetings to suggest that a secret ballot should bo taken as to whether the men should resume work, the proposer would be howled down. If a man offended the committee in any way he was put on the black' list and hio strike pay stopped. Storekeepers who displeased the strike committee were boycotted, and many had been ruined. Out of about 1500 miners' "Waihi used to possess, about 900 had left the township,': and an air of desolation pervaded the place. The engineers were forced to carry revolvers, and they were "boohooed" as they went along the streets. It was only due to the tact of the police that actual bodily harm had not been done.

The position at Waihi now. said the speaker, was that the mine-owners had absolutely refused to treat with the men except through the Arbitration Court. They realised that the gold in the mines would keep, consequently they had decided to let the men remain on strike just as long as they liked.