An exhibition about the Waihi gold strike of 1912.
This exhibition will be opening at Waihi
Arts Centre and Museum on Sunday November the 11th and running
until to the 25th of November. It will then show at The Rotorua
Museum from 13 April – 30 June 2013, and then at Whitespace Gallery, 12 Crummer
Rd. Ponsonby, Auckland during July 2013.
Gold Strike is an imaginative reconstruction
of the 1912 Strike - The people, places and the locations of this vivid,
violent and ultimately tragic event. The exhibition will be opened exactly 100
years to the day that the striker Fred Evans was killed as he fled from the
miners Union Hall on the 11th of November 1912.
The Pukewa workings
122 x 60
The first prospectors to explore the Waihi
workings, McCombie and Lee, bored into Pukewa’s harsh, glinting interior.
The open cut
180 x 60
There in Waihi, with its toil and its
treasure,
Men’s lives are squandered while earning a
crust.
The Talisman Battery
122 x 90
Several deafening batteries of stampers
began crushing the quartz rock down to powder.
The Orua flax swamp
63 x 25
Tim Armstrong left school at the age of 11
and worked in the flax-milling industry in the great Orua flax swamp between
Bulls and Shannon.
The fun of the world
63 x 25
At 19 Tim Armstrong was working on the
railway in Raetihi when he heard of work available the Waihi goldfields. "
I thought it would be the place for me, so along with a few mates we made up
our minds to roll up our swags and walk to the gold fields… it was the fun of
the world at times.”
The Golden Cross mine
63 x 25
At Waihi, Tim Armstrong found work at the
Golden Cross mine. “There they had a union and it was the very thing I
wanted.” In no time at all Tim was president of the large Waihi Miners Union.
Bill Parry
180 x 45
The Waihi Miners Union managed to retain a
president by paying his salary themselves, and Bill Parry proved his worth
during fierce negotiations with the mining company over competitive
contracting.
The Rebel
40 x 60
Charles Smith was a “Niagara of Energy”. He
was a miner, the president of the local branch of the Socialist Party, the
author of frequent articles on Waihi, under the pen-name ‘The Rebel”, and the
organiser of Pat Hickey’s 1911 campaign for the parliamentary seat of
Ohinemuri.
Pat Hickey
Private collection
By 1911 this ‘roaring
boy’ from the Federation of Labour was one of the country’s most powerful
political orators. The Waihi socialists selected him as their candidate for the
1911 general election.
Bob Semple
Private Collection
Known as ‘Bob the Ranter, a former
tunneller and one of the country’s prominent apostles of socialism, Semple
helped to campaign for Hickey in Waihi.
Paddy Webb
Private collection
While Hickey ran for parliament in Waihi,
Paddy Webb was the miners’ choice in Runanga on the west coast. Neither man won
in 1911, but in 1913 Webb won a by-election to become the first coalminer to
enter parliament.
Harry Holland
55 x 40
Harry was a silver-tongued Australian
radical who was invited to New Zealand by the Waihi socialists to give a
speaking tour. He stayed here for the rest of his life and became leader of the
Labour Party.
Marjorie Noakes
55 x 40
A schoolgirl and miner’s daughter who, like
Zena Norton, was passionate about the principles of her father’s union. “Why
should men who work the hardest get the smallest pay, and those who do not work
at all get millions of money?”
The mine manager’s dream
122 x 90
With the water level rising in the
mineshafts and returns falling for the first time in a decade, industrial
conflict threatens to overwhelm the diggings and the embattled mine manager
sleeps uneasily.
Two on the beats and one in the watchhouse
Three panels, each panel
17 x 26
“Since the Strike commenced, there have
been three Constables on night duty, two on the Beats and one in the
Watchhouse.”
The police inspector’s report
55 x 40
“I beg to report that ever since the Strike
commenced… not one act of lawlessness of any kind has been committed”
The Cornish Pumphouse
120 x 90
This concrete castle housed
the massive pumps that kept the mines free of water. During the strike they
fell silent, and several strikers slipped underground to check how high the
water levels had risen.”
Rev. Robert Cleary
55 x 40
The local Anglican minister was one of
several Waihi notables who signed a letter calling for the government to
intervene in the strike. He was later made an honorary member of the scab
union.
Commissioner Cullen
90 x 90
An iron-willed Irishman who rose from
constable to Commissioner of Police, Cullen was prepared to break his own laws
to defeat Waihi strikers and other ‘enemies of society’.
Bully boys and ex-cons
55 x 40
“the peace of Cullen the Police
Commissioner and Herdman the voice of Justice, who sent in extra cops,
scabs, bully boys and ex-cons”
The Snakecharmer
55 x 40
If there was trouble in Seddon Street,
Waihi’s main thoroughfare, the sinister bowler-hatted strikebreaker known as
the Snakecharmer was always there.
Harvey the Pug
55 x 40
The vicious ex-criminal recruited to help
break the strike, he rode into town firing a pistol in each hand.
Hatpin Delaney
55 x 40
The blustering strikebreaker who gained his
nickname after he was chased by 18-year-old Jessie Beames, armed only with the
nine-inch hatpin she pulled from her cascade of chestnut hair.
The brakes
120 x 90
Strikebreakers were transported to and from
the mine in open horse-drawn carriages, known as brakes. Sometimes a uniformed
policeman held the reins. On every shift they faced a barrage of abuse from
strikers and their families.
The Death of Fred Evans
32 x 23
Evans then fled in terror through a back
door and into a vacant property behind the hall. “My father always said that he
survived,” says Don Boswell, “because he could run faster than Fred Evans.”
Michael Rudd
55 x 40
The turncoat from the strikers’ ranks who
compiled a list of his former colleagues. The strikebreakers worked through the
list, giving each man and his family a day’s notice to be on the train out of
town.
Georgina Parry
13 x 15
Georgina Parry, wife of the imprisoned
union president, was threatened by a mob. “I said if they were men enough to
attack me, I was woman enough to fight them.”
Peter Fraser
55 x 40
55 x 40
The earnest Scot from the Federation of
Labour who got Bill Parry released from Mt. Eden gaol. Like others prominent in
the strike, Fraser entered parliament 20 years later.
The Scarlet Runners
120 x 40
Private Collection
The strikers’ sweethearts, wives and sisters who ran messages through police lines and later slipped into the besieged town to distribute relief supplies.
The strikers’ sweethearts, wives and sisters who ran messages through police lines and later slipped into the besieged town to distribute relief supplies.
The Taniwha
112 x 20
The river steamer that sailed between
Paeroa and Auckland, carrying strikers, strikebreakers and gold. In November
1912 it transported the terrorised strikers’ families to safety.
The quotations with each painting are from
“Waiheathens – Voices from a mining town,” by Mark Derby and Bob Kerr. A book
that accompanies this exhibition. This book can be bought from the Waihi
Gallery or from the publisher, Atuanui Press. atuanuipress.co.nz
The paintings are all oil on board. Their
dimensions are in cm, width before height. If you are interested in purchasing
any of these paintings please contact:
54 Kenny St Waihi
Box 149 Waihi 3641
When they are showing in Rotorua and
Auckland please contact:
12 Crummer Rd. Ponsonby
Auckland, New Zealand
Email: dwhite@whitespace.co.nz
Phone : +64 9 361
6331
Mobile: +64 21 639 789.
The show will travel in its complete state
and works purchased from Waihi or Rotorua will be delivered at the conclusion
of the showing at Whitespace in July.
