Evans - Waikaraka Cemetery - Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand
S 36° 55.777 E 174° 47.914
60H E 303931 N 5910671
A broken column headstone in the Waikaraka Cemetery, 1 Albert St, Onehunga.
Waymark Code: WM98TD
Location: North Island, New Zealand
Date Posted: 07/15/2010
Views: 3
Frederick George Evans was the first person to be killed in the course of an industrial dispute in New Zealand. His death raised him from anonymity; he became a martyr, a potent labour symbol.
Evans was born on 11 February 1881 in the Australian mining town of Ballarat, Victoria, the younger of twin boys born to Catherine Dickson and her husband, miner Frederick Evans. He married Maria (May) Kelly, a 19-year-old domestic servant, in a Catholic ceremony at Deloraine, Tasmania, on 31 October 1906. Three years later they came to New Zealand with their two young children.
The 1912 Waihi strike
In March 1912 a small group of gold-mine engine drivers (who operated the machines that raised and lowered the miners in the mine shafts) formed a breakaway union under the Arbitration Act. The 1,000 members of the Waihi Miners Union stopped work in protest.
The strike became a violent conflict after an anti-union government headed by William Massey took office in May 1912. Large numbers of police were sent into Waihi, more than 60 strikers were jailed, and hundreds of strike-breakers were recruited. In October 1912 the mines reopened and strike-breakers were driven to work in horse-drawn wagons under heavy police guard.
On 12 November 1912 strike-breakers attacked the union hall, and striker Fred Evans was beaten to death. They then rampaged around Waihi, forcing the other strikers and their families to leave town.
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