On 12 November 1912, striking-unionist Frederick George Evans was fatally wounded, becoming the first person to die during an industrial dispute in New Zealand. Known as 'Black Tuesday', the event led to the violent end of the Waihi Strike, which had begun six months earlier.

The New Zealand labour movement at that time was undergoing a deep radicalisation. As a result, workers across New Zealand were increasingly questioning the arbitration system. Introduced in 1894, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act (ICA) outlawed strike action and forced unions and employers into negotiated industrial awards governed by the Arbitration Court.

A series of strikes - including the 1908 Blackball Strike - gave rise to the ‘Red’ Federation of Labor, which encouraged direct action outside of the ICA. Affiliated unions, including the miners of the Waihi Trade Union of Workers (of which Evans' was a member), began to de-register from the ICA. So when 30 Waihi engine drivers re-registered under the Act in May, the Waihi union struck in protest.

Local police initially took a low-key response to the dispute. But Police Commissioner John Cullen soon ordered extra forces to be sent to the town. Enthusiastically backed by the newly-elected Reform Government of William Massey, Cullen was given powers to crush the 'enemies of order'. Eventually about 80 police - 10% of the New Zealand Police Force - were deployed in the town.

As nzhistory.net notes, "escalating violence in Waihi culminated in the dramatic events of ‘Black Tuesday'". A crowd of strike-breakers and police stormed the miners’ hall, at the time defended by Evans and two or three others. Both sides were armed, and during a struggle at the door a strike-breaker was shot in the knee. There is debate about what exactly happened next, but as the unionists retreated Constable Gerald Wade was shot in the stomach. Evans was struck down by a police baton and savagely beaten by strike-breakers. Left for an hour and a half in police cells before being taken to hospital, Evans never regained consciousness and died the next day.

As the strike collapsed, strikers and their families were hunted through the streets by armed mobs. The violence was as vicious as any seen in a civil conflict in New Zealand, and hundreds of unionists and their families were driven out of Waihi over the following days.

The image above shows a large march of unionists and their families through Waihi, led by the union band. It comes from a collection of historic Ministry of Works photographs depicting roads and bridges (www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewEntity.do?code=24414).

Archives Reference: ABKK 24414 W4358 Box 533/ 13761 www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23459001

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