DESPERATE RIOT AT RIO TINTO

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2456, 7 April 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

DESPERATE RIOT AT RIO TINTO

A Ckntral News telegram from Madrid Sii ys : —" tho well-known copper-mining district of Rio Tinto has boon thrown into tho utmost confusion by a conflict between soldiers and civilians, arising out of a labour dispute. Tho English company which works the mines decided the other day to reduce the wages of the miners because the dense smoke produced by open-air calcinations interrupts work for two or threo hours every day. Tho miners thereupon struck and, joining with the neighbouring peasantry, who are annoyed by the fumes produced by open-air calcination, paraded the town and became riotous. On Saturday the civil governor of Huelva was sent to Rio Tinto with a number of soldiers and civil guards. He aidressed the assemblage of over twelve thousaud agitators from the Towuhall. and urged upon them the necessity of preserving order. Instead of yielding u> his exhortations, however, some of the miners commenced to fire pistols and explode dynamite cartridges. The soldiers were then ordered to fire. The crowd, who showed no inclination to shrink, hud ten of their number killed outright, many were dangerously wounded, five of whom have since died. Of tho soldiers only two are reported as having being seriously wounded. The disproportion in the casualties is accounted for by tho fact that at, the ontset tho miners and peasants made a hot-headed rash upon thii soldiers, by whom they wore shot down. Nevertheless the rush was so determined that the troops were all but routed. At last tho rioters, thoroughly disorganised, commenced to retire to the outskirts of the town. The authorities telegraphed for reinforoements; and the town and surroundings villages are now occupied by about one thousand armed men, consisting of cavalry, infantry, and civil guards, under the command of a brigadier - general. Magistrates have been sent to investigate the affair, After tho riot had been quelled on Saturday many houses were searched, in some of which were found arms and dynamite. The authorities also discovered that Socialist, agents had been busily at work in fomenting the discontent of the people. The difficulty has been overcome, so far ns the minora are concerned, by thn English company promising, on the advice of the authorities, to restore the old scalu of wages."