A picnic for the 1913 Great Strike splitters

Christopher Luxon’s recent visit to Hamilton East saw mutual respect between the Prime Minister and an electorate which returned National Party candidates to parliament in both of the city’s seats.

One hundred and ten years ago Hamilton was no less inclined toward a conservative brand of politics.

In April of 1914 the Farmers’ Union, together with the Hamilton Borough Council, planned an event they labelled a picnic, one to be held at then Ruakura State Farm. Whilst the moniker suggested the bucolic, festivities had a definitive ideological bent.

The farmers sought to celebrate and reward those of their number who had travelled to Auckland to help break the 1913 Great Strike a handful of months before.

Known as “the specials”, these volunteers, numbering at least 600, were doubtless referred to by other names by the New Zealand Federation of Labour, the organisation central to industrial action which saw over 14,000 workers strike.

Special trains transported farmers and their families from Cambridge and Rotorua with provision for discounted return tickets for those travelling from Paeroa, Thames, Te Kūiti and Auckland itself.

Whilst a poor if inaccurate weather forecast inhibited some of the projected attendance, estimates of the crowd size ranged from 3000 to 4000 people, inclusive of 400 “specials”, all of whom were presented with a medal celebrating their achievements as temporary constables by Premier William Massey.

Enjoying some of the conventional trappings of a picnic, including food, drink, sporting events and games for the children, the medal ceremony itself was the main event.

Speeches were delivered by Hamilton Mayor Arthur Manning, the Reform Party MP for Raglan, R. F. Bollard, Massey himself and Major Daniel Lusk, the 81-year-old president of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union.

Lusk’s brand of conservatism stretched back to the invasion of the Waikato. In 1865 he surveyed Māori land for military settlement.

Much as the University of Waikato today shamelessly courts central government support for its proposed medical school, so many a Hamiltonian became excited at Massey’s suggestion that Ruakura could be developed as a North Island agricultural college.

The statement was little more than a tease.

Above: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s recent visit to Hamilton showed there’s still a conservative inclination in the city. He’s pictured at Made in Hamilton East.

Right: There were many farmers and rural people among the mounted special constables - disparagingly called Massey’s Cossacks - who were sent to break up strikes. Pictured is a group on Tasman St, Wellington, in 1913.