The Waihi strike
- When
- 12 May 1912 – 12 November 1912
- Where
- Waihi · Waihī
- Reach
- Local
Six months of confrontation at the goldmine ended when police and strikebreakers stormed the miners’ hall and Frederick Evans was fatally injured.
The Massey government backed the mine owners with police drafted in from around the country, and a rival arbitration union was set up to take the strikers’ jobs. Evans became the first person killed in an industrial dispute in New Zealand. Strikers and their families were driven out of town. The bitterness fed directly into the Great Strike of 1913 and into the founding of the Labour Party in 1916.
Regions affected
Sources
Written for this project from these references rather than copied from them. Follow a link to check the account against the original.
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