BROKEN HILL TROUBLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3037, 6 November 1908, Page 5

BROKEN HILL TROUBLE.

DESPATCHING OF POLICE, ARMS, AND AMMUNITION. A QUERY IN COMMONWEALTH SENATE. LARGE MASS MEETING. . Received November 5, 9.50 a.m. MELBOURNE, November 5. Senator M'Gregor, Leader of the Labour Party in the Federal Senate, drew attention to the action of New South Wales in sending extra police to Broken Hill, and added that New South Wales had also sent a consignment of arms and ammunition. He did not, he said, believe the officials of the mines or the miners wanted the interference of the Government at all; they could settle their troubles themselves. He desired to know by what authority New South Wales had transported arms and ammunition through two States of the Commonwealth.

Senator Keating (Secretary for Home Affairs) in reply, said there was a provision in the constitution which made it impossible for a State to raise naval and military forces, but that did not prevent a State from organising a force to keep peace and order within its borders. He would lay the matter before the Government. The Chief Secretary of this State has stated that there is no truth in the statement, so far as police or Government is concerned, arms and ammunition have been despatched to Broken Hill. The Municipal Council at Broken Hill, and a large mass meeting held at that place condemned the action of the Government in sending extra police to the town.