Dunedin Riot
According to historian Miles Fairburn, in 1932 New Zealand was "poised on the brink of wholesale violence". On Saturday 9 January 1932 a group of unemployed marched to the offices of the Otago Hospital Board in Dunedin demanding relief. When they were turned down the crowd's frustration erupted. They smashed the windows of the nearby grocery store and fights started in the streets. Groups marched together up George Street before being joined by multiple others at Hanover Street. The crowd was described by the Otago Daily Times as being people who were " inflamed and enraged by the privations and hardships of the times". The aim of the march was to find employment and a reason to live, rather than to ask for charity.
When it was announced by officials that nothing could be done outrage flared and the crowd descended on Wardells, which was the biggest grocery store in the city at that time. The group had intended to loot the store, but arrived to find that it was heavily armed with reinforcements. The police held back the crowd, and although windows were smashed there was not looting. The violence came to an end when it was announced that there would be a special distribution of 800 food parcels.
When it was announced by officials that nothing could be done outrage flared and the crowd descended on Wardells, which was the biggest grocery store in the city at that time. The group had intended to loot the store, but arrived to find that it was heavily armed with reinforcements. The police held back the crowd, and although windows were smashed there was not looting. The violence came to an end when it was announced that there would be a special distribution of 800 food parcels.
However, a larger scale riot came in April, again fueled by frustrations at the lack of assistance. On April 9 a recently formed women's branch of the Unemployed Worker's Movement marched to a relief depot demanding food. Upon the insistence of the mayoress that food parcels would only be distributed on a case-by-case basis the crowds anger erupted. This was followed a few days later by a "rampage" through the town by a group who smashed windows and looted stores. Some of these people also attempted to break into the Hospital Board's offices.
On both of these occasions the rioting crowds were disperse by baton-wielding police. In the week following the Dunedin strike in April, a number of the Unemployed Worker's Movement were arrested. |