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Massey’s South Auckland Cossacks
Bruce Ringer
This article discusses the 1913 Great Strike in a local context. It explores the contribution South Auckland men made to the special constables who were used to help break the strike (or lockout). It discusses whether these specials, popularly known as ‘Massey’s Cossacks’, were really as brutal as they have often been depicted.
Background to the Great Strike
In 1913 a wave of industrial unrest usually known as the 'Great Strike' or 'General Strike' swept New Zealand.[1] Events saw the strikers, who attempted to occupy the wharves, and their supporters, pitted against volunteer strike-breakers who were protected by mounted special police armed with batons and – according to some accounts – revolvers. Historiography has generally depicted the special police as the villains of the piece. Is this really the case?
The strike - or lockout - began on the Wellington wharves on 22 October 1913. By 28 October the trouble had spread to Auckland. Prime Minister W.F. Massey's Reform government had at first proposed the use of the military to occupy the wharves and maintain essential services, but ultimately decided to use civilian 'special constables' instead. In the Auckland area, the formal enrolment of special constables began on 29 October. The New Zealand Farmers' Union - concerned with keeping the wharves free and the export trade moving - was active in seeking out volunteers in rural districts.[2]
The President of the Auckland Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union at the time was the elderly Major D.H. Lusk, formerly of Mauku. Lusk, a hero of the Waikato war of the 1860s, and a former militia commander, ran the operation of recruiting and organizing the specials as far as possible along military lines.[3]
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