Battle of Featherston Street

5 November 1913

Battle of Featherston Street
Battle of Featherston Street (Alexander Turnbull Library, 1/2-160127-F)

The ‘Battle of Featherston Street’, in downtown Wellington, saw some of the most violent street fighting of the 1913 Great Strike.

The strike began in October following disputes on the Wellington waterfront and at the Huntly coal mines. Watersiders and coal miners around the country went out in sympathy, and they were later joined by seamen and other workers. The Reform government of William Massey organised special constables, nicknamed ‘Massey’s Cossacks’, some of whom came into the cities from rural areas to forcibly reopen the wharves.

On 5 November crowds of strike supporters clashed with more than 800 mounted special constables who were riding from their base at Buckle St to Lambton station (near today’s Wellington railway station). Their mission was to escort racehorses to the wharves so they could be shipped to Christchurch for the New Zealand Cup race meeting.

On Willis, Ghuznee and Dixon streets, stones were thrown at the specials, who responded by charging and batoning the crowds. The battle began in earnest on Featherston Street, where specials charged strikers. Pro-strike tram drivers tried to ram specials on horseback, and metal spikes and detonators were thrown at horses’ hooves. Eventually the specials broke through and took control of the wharves. This was a decisive moment in the strike. From now on ‘free labourers’ (known to the strikers as ‘scabs’) could be brought onto the wharves to load and unload ships.

The next day, free labourers were registered in an arbitration union and began working the ships. They avoided crossing picket lines by dossing down on board ships or in makeshift dormitories in wharf sheds. Once the wharves were working again it was only a matter of time before the strike collapsed. Similar ‘scab’ unions were set up around the country as the authorities regained control of the wharves.

Image: scene from the Battle of Featherston Street.

Community contributions

2 comments have been posted about Battle of Featherston Street

What do you know?

Jamie Mackay

Posted: 24 Nov 2015

The use of 'Merchant Navy' was not adopted by Britain until the 1920s, before this it was most commonly known as the merchant marine: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/war/merchant-marine

W D Lawlor

Posted: 24 Nov 2015

We never had a merchant marine That was an Americanism, we had a Merchant Navy.