The Wellington Riots
The Wellington rioters only wanted their list of demands to be met by Coates. The unemployed felt cheated when Coates led the protestors on which outraged them into a powerful attack.
The Government began to make changes to their relief schemes and how they would work. The Governments Unemployment board would not go back to the old provisions. On May the 10th in Wellington a mass meeting of 4,000 was being held at the Basin Reserve by the unemployed. They began to march to parliament with a list of demands. Minster of Public Works Gordon Coates kept the protestors waiting until dark only to announce that he would address the protestor’s matters in a speech the following day. This ignited the protestors into fury for all the waiting involved. The crowds used fruit to smash windows on Lambton Quay. Their tactics were to aim for the hardware stores so they could pick up tools such as iron bars and spanners. It was in a way a clever tactic to grab tools in which to create more violence and destruction upon Lambton Quay. One witness said that they heard a man cry, “let’s smash the bloody town up”. Other streets were damaged too such as Willis Street and Manners Street. The following day of the initial riots a meeting was taking place on Cuba Street by striking relief workers. They claimed that the police came ambushed them for no apparent reason. Scaring and belting the crowds until they dispersed. However no violence occurred from the protestors. The police also were cleared of all charges of violence against protestors. The riots in Wellington were said to be blamed by ‘communist agitators’ and the ‘lawless minority’ by the press. The relief workers strike only lasted until the 21st of May. The very disappointing factor is that Coates never lived up to his promise of addressing the workers demands. There was a significant difference between the Wellington and Auckland riots which was the size of people who were involved. Less people were involved within the Wellington riots. However it was similar to Auckland in that people were prosecuted and sentenced if the police apprehended them.