THE POLICE AT WAIHI.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10719, 28 September 1912, Page 4

THE POLICE AT WAIHI.

A howl has gone up from the Federation of Labour on account of police being sent to Waihi to protect working men from molestation by thoso who will not work. The Massey Government and the employers are blamed for the presence of tho police; but the Voice of Labour, which claims to be tho only Labour paper in' New Zealand, puts a different complexion on tho matter. It- says "The leaders of the Federation of Labour have already stated that the employers are not 'fighting

fair'; that they have sought 'the assistance of the Government to help them beat the Federation ty sending police into Waihi. Tliis is. of course, an utter misrepresentation of tho facts. It was not the em-

ployers who asktvd For tho police to bo sent to Wiiihi, nor is tho strike in Waihi even ngnintit tho (uuployere; it is against tho Union registered under the .Arbitration Act, and it was this Union made application that police should he sent to protect them from threatened violence, intimidation and general annoyance by tho Syndicalists' followers. The police are not there to boat the Federation, but to maintain law and order, to protect members of the State from being interfered with bv other members of the State, who deny tho State's rights; to maintain law and order; for Syndicalism says 'to hell with law and order, 1 and this is what tho leaders of the Federation mean when tliey protestagainst the presence of representatives 'of tho organised State "»i Waihi."