NEWSLETTER 55 | AUGUST 2012
by unionists as largely beneficial to workers. It did not cover rural labourers, domestic servants or state employees. Thus, as state employees, the state coal mining union’s first successful campaign was to get registered under the Act, which technically did not apply to them. It is ironic that Bob Semple led the union into gaining registration. Semple later achieved fame, or notoriety, for leading militant union opposition to the Arbitration Act in the ‘Red Fed’ years, from 1908 to 1913. The Miners’ Union was based in both Runanga and Dunollie, holding its early meetings in sites such as the Dunollie Hotel and the Dunollie Druids Hall. The two towns had a number of venues for community events. The Runanga Tennis Club Ball was held at the Dunollie Druids’ Hall in April 1907, while the Library Committee held a ‘financially successful’ dance at the same venue in September of the same year. A lantern lecture on ‘The Progress of the Church in New Zealand’ was held in the Runanga School Hall in June 1907. By 1908 Runanga also had a Masonic lodge, with its own hall for meetings. Runanga, with a town council dominated by members of the Miners’ Union, was known in the conservative press as a hotbed of radicalism. In June of 1908 the leader of the 1889 London Dockers Strike, the legendary Tom Mann, spoke at the Dunollie Druids Hall. The Miners’ Union itself was actively involved in community activities, one example being the use of union funds to establish a Co-operative Society, which had a store up and running by 1906. In early 1907 the Miners’ Union decided they needed their own hall. The planning for the hall’s construction was conducted by the union’s executive committee, while the plans for the hall itself were carried out by architect George Millar. Construction was carried out by ‘Mr Murray and his staff’. The hall was opened with celebrations in December 1908, with a special train from Greymouth bringing people up for the festivities. The new hall was adorned with slogans made popular throughout the industrialised world by the militant working class: ‘World’s Wealth for the World’s Workers: United We Stand Divided We Fall.’ James Begg Kent, MP for Westland from 1947 to 1960, stated in later years that as a young activist he painted the slogans at the instigation of Red Fed activist Pat Hickey. (Letter J B Kent to J Weir, 21 Aug 1966). From the beginning the hall was used for union meetings, as well as for the public meetings of labour movement speakers and for meetings of the Runanga Co-operative Society. The hall was the venue where the Miners’ Union decided on action to deal with workplace and community issues. Thus in February 1919 the Miners’ Union called a stopwork meeting to discuss the need for a medical officer for Runanga. The meeting, presided over by H. Coppersmith, mayor of Runanga and president of the Runanga Medical Association, decided to strike until the government appointed a replacement for the retiring Dr. Meade. Another meeting in 1920 protested over the quality of rail transport to the mine. Union meetings at the Miners Hall were not confined to the miners. In 1920 Arthur Cook, president of the NZ Workers Union (NZWU) and an advocate of ‘One Big Union’, held a meeting at the hall. Cook addressed the Runanga section of railway construction workers, who resolved to join the NZWU. Women were also labour orators. In 1909 Mrs Glover was recorded as speaking ‘at length’ on ‘Women and Socialism’, during her West Coast tour. A women’s branch of the Socialist Party was established at Runanga in August 1911. Women were also often prominent among the prohibition speakers who frequently