Crime, Protest and the Use of the Criminal Law in Wellington During the General Strike Of1913
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Sedition, Violence, Theft and Disorder: Crime, Protest and the Use of the Criminal Law in Wellington during the General Strike of1913 Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Donald Anderson University of Canterbury February 2001 For my parents, Mavis and Alex Anderson and for Elaine Griffin, Roger Griffin, Helen Griffin, Saffy Griffin and Pearl Griffin My thanks also to Miles Fairburn, Deidra Sullivan, Tanya Price, Douglas Kammen, Elliott Campbell, Diana McCurdy, Julie Keenan, Jonathan Griffin, Graeme Dunstall, Geoff Vincent, Peter Boston, Peter Atwell and Ann McCarthy 22 AUG Z001 Contents Page Abstract p.iii List of Tables p.IV Chapter 1 - Introduction p.1 Chapter 2 - Methodology pAO Chapter 3 - Crime as Protest during Industrial Disputes - International Perspectives p.50 Chapter 4 - The Use of the Criminal Law during Industrial Disputes - International Perspectives p.86 Chapter 5 - Crime as Protest and the 1913 General Strike in Wellington p.143 Chapter 6 - Intensified Efforts to Control Disorder or the Repressive Use of the Criminal Law?: Criminal Prosecutions, Verdicts, Sentences and the 1913 General Strike in Wellington p.218 Conclusion p.289 Bibliography p.300 List of Appendices p.319 Appendix 1 to Appendix 13 iii Abstract This thesis investigates the connection between industrial protest and the crime committed in Wellington during the 1913 General Strike. The possibility that the ways in which the criminal law was implemented changed in response to the strike has also been examined. The crimes focused upon include violence, theft, anti-state actions, seditious utterances, verbal abuse, threatening behaviour and desertion. Crimes committed in Wellington during and in the two years before the start of the strike have been researched. In all, 1757 criminal charges for violence, theft or potential anti-state actions are studied. Some comparisons are made with violence, crime, prosecutions and policing during the 1890 Maritime Strike and the 1951 Waterfront Dispute. International research on crime, protest, prosecutions, policing and industrial disputes is also discussed to provide a basis for the New Zealand case study. Six hypotheses from the international research are tested against the data gathered on Wellington. Three of these hypotheses concern crime as protest by strikers. The other three hypotheses focus on the uses made of the criminal law during industrial disputes (through arrests, prosecutions, verdicts, sentences, the refusal of bail, and jury trials). Offences by strikers against their employers and against strike-breakers are found to have been surprisingly infrequent in Wellington in late 1913. Crime as protest by strikers and sympathisers against special constables was very common. There is no evidence, however, that theft was used as a form of protest during the strike. The response of the police to the 1913 strike and the related disorder was to intensify their efforts to control certain types of offences, in particular, socially threatening "crimes" associated with the strike. Overall, the police displayed a surprising degree of restraint in making arrests. The analysis of conviction and sentencing patterns indicates that the Wellington judiciary responded firmly to the period of disorder and heightened social tensions, but that this response was neither malicious nor indiscriminate. The criminal law was not used as a means to remove (through conviction and imprisonment) all "undesirables" or potential "troublemakers" from the streets of Wellington. Many of those who were convicted of strike related offences received longer terms of imprisonment and larger fines than were imposed prior to the strike. These sentences were intended to deter potential offenders and prevent further disorder, as well as to punish those caught. The penalties were firm but not as severe as the law allowed. iv List of Tables: Table 1: Categorisation of Violent Crimes Committed in Wellington p. '154 During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 2: Categorisation of Crimes of Theft Committed in Wellington p.155 During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 3: Categorisation of the Crimes Against the State Committed in p.156 Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 4: Categorisation of Strike Related Violent Crimes Committed in p.160 Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 5: Categorisation of the Strike Related Crimes Against the State p.161 Committed in Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 6: Numbers of Crimes Committed in Wellington During and in p.167 the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 7: Occupations (Grouped by Broad Categories) of those p.169 Accused of Crimes Committed in Wellington During and in the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 8: Specific Occupations of those Blue Collar Workers Accused p.170 of Crimes Committed in Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 9: Specific Occupations of those Blue Collar Workers Accused p.171 of Crimes Committed in Wellington During the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court Table 10: Occupations (Grouped by Broad Categories) of the Victims p.174 of Crimes Committed in Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court v Table 11: Occupations (Grouped by Broad Categories) of the Victims p.175 of Crimes Committed in Wellington During the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court - Breakdown by General Type of Crime Table 12: Withdrawn Strike Related Charges (concerning Offences p.223 Allegedly Committed in Wellington During the General Strike of 1913) Table 13: Cases Withdrawn - Wellington (concerning the Twenty-four p.224 and a Half Months preceding the 1913 Strike) Table 14: Comparison of the Pleas of those Accused of Offences in p.233 Wellington During and in the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 - excluding private prosecutions Table 15: Comparison of the Rates of Conviction For Decisions Made p.252 By Magistrates (due to accused pleading not guilty) - (For Crimes Committed in Wellington During and in the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 which resulted in Prosecutions in the Wellington Magistrate's Court) Table 16: Comparison of the Sentences for Offences Committed in p.263 Wellington During and in the Twenty-four and a Half Months Before the General Strike of 1913 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Terrorism At Wharves - Lawless Mob Outbreaks - Steamers Rushed by the Strikers - Police to be Re-inforced - The Shipping Operations Paralysed (large) headline in The Dominion, 25 October 1913, p.5, cols. 7 and 8 Stephen Thomas Hunt, one of the party of special constables who arrived from Palmerston on the night of October 29, stated that as they were proceeding to the police station they passed a number of men at the corner of Bunny Street. One of the men called out, "Here's these ----- ----- scabs! Let's take to them!" This crowd followed them all the way to the police station, shouting similar language and throwing stones. Witness was one of those who were hit. Report in The Dominion, 05 February 1914, p.9, cols. 4-5 of Thomas Acland's Supreme Court trial for taking part in a riot and using obscene language on 29 October 1913. Acland, a waterside worker who had gone on strike in 1913, was convicted by the jury on both charges. In view of the gigantic conspiracy to smash organised labour, and the life and death struggle throughout New Zealand in order to preserve unionism against armed blacklegism, we call upon your union to make it a common cause by refusing to work till the armed scabs leave the city. Auckland is magnificently solid. Will you follow? Labour's defeat means labour's annihilation. The manifesto of the United Federation of Labour calling for a general strike in Wellington - issued 10 November 1913.1 The [United] Federation of Labour is a cancerous growth which has been eating into the vitals of legitimate labour unionism as well as threatening the healthy development of the industries and trade of the country. editorial in The Dominion, 14 November 1913, p.6, col. 5 The 1913 General Strike was one of the most turbulent and violent industrial disputes in New Zealand's history. In late October and early November 1913 riots in Wellington were an almost daily occurrence. 2 This thesis seeks to determine the connection between the industrial protest and Quoted in P. N. Pettit, The Wellington Watersiders - The Story of Their Industrial Organisation, (Wellington: Wellington Branch of the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Union, 1948), p.60. (Pettit cites as from G. G. Hancox and J. Hight, 'The Labour Movement and the Strike of 1913 in New Zealand', The Economic Journal, June 1914, p.l91). 2 See Richard S. Hill, The Iron Hand in the Velvet Glove: The Modernisation of Policing in New Zealand 1886-1917, (Palmerston North: 2 the crime committed during the strike. The uses made of the criminal law in response to this period of social tension and civil strife will also be examined. The two month strike began in Wellington on 18 October 1913 and in Huntly on 20 October.