Spectrum 473 and Spectrum 474. Jim Edwards was my father.

Rights Information
Year
1984
Reference
19738
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1984
Reference
19738
Media type
Audio
Duration
01:21:00
Credits
RNZ Collection
James Edwards, 1918-, Interviewee
Alwyn Owen, 1926-, Producer

Spectrum was a weekly radio documentary series which ran on Radio New Zealand's National station from 1972 to 2016. Alwyn Owen and Jack Perkins produced the series for many years, creating a valuable library of New Zealand oral history.

This is a two-part Spectrum documentary about Jim Edwards - a central figure of the 1932 Depression-era riots in Auckland's Queen Street.

In the first programme, Jim Edwards senior is remembered with sensitivity and affection by his son, James Edwards.

Jim Edwards was of Welsh and Irish descent and arrived in New Zealand in 1913 and worked as a strike-breaker during that strike - which he later greatly regretted.

His son recalls his work as a door-to-door salesman, selling books on commission in Taranaki, when money was very tight.

James recalls the hardship the family endured and moving to Auckland where his father became politically enlightened and joined the Socialist and then Communist Parties, becoming deeply involved in the struggles of working class people.

The family moved house often and James went to many different schools. He says his father was a great storyteller and singer and although he was often absent, there were compensations, as he was a very loving father.

He talks about the widespread poverty he saw at Newton Central School, with few children ever having anything to eat for lunch. His father used to make cleaner at home and try and sell it door-to-door with several other men, fellow socialists or communists who used to drink away most of the little money they made.
He remembers one man named “Snuffy Wilson” who moved his large family by horse and dray from Wellington to Auckland. His children were all barefoot and attended Newton School. He remembers John A. Lee intervening when the family were evicted from their home in Newton. “Hellfire Dave” and “Squeaker Dudley” were two other men who were recruited by his father and he tells several stories about them, and others about his father purchasing a piano (which was soon repossessed) and a test drive in a car.

In the second programme, James Edwards recalls his father's role in the 1932 Auckland unemployed workers' riots.

James was 14 and recalls he used to skip school to go and join the demonstrations, along with men who were on relief work. They marched to the Star newspaper office in Shortland Street to protest at its coverage of the protests. He recalls how his father intervened to restore peace when the crowd nearly attacked three policemen.

Three days later at the Queen Street protests, James also marched and remembers that the Unemployed Workers Movement was not being admitted to a Postal Workers' Union rally at the Town Hall. His father was batoned from behind which ignited the crowd. Mounted police arrived and he heard people saying his father had been killed. He made his way home and his father eventually arrived with his head stitched.

He says his father was amazed that a riot had taken place - and shocked when people began reporting on the looting of Queen St shops. His father was warned he would be blamed for the riot and was spirited away to a neighbour's house. Police arrived and arrested his father's friend Rod Roland and turned the house upside-down looking for Jim.

His father remained in hiding for several months but eventually turned himself in when the hysteria had died down. He tells of his father turning himself in to Constable Brady of Kingsland and being granted bail by the magistrate, Mr Hunt, despite police opposition.

Minister and broadcaster Colin Scrimgeour approached Sir Ernest Davis to provide funds for Jim Edward's defence. He was found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to two years' hard labour. He served 18 months. James recalls the effect on his family of his father's sentence. He remembers his mother lugging a gramophone and records up to outside Mt Eden prison and playing music, in the hope his father would hear it. She was raising 8 children on her own, with the eldest only aged 14. James says even though they were young, the children were proud of their father and he was something of a young rebel himself, refusing to salute the flag at school.

After his release his father continued speaking out about social injustice, and after the 1935 Labour government came to power, continued helping people in poverty in practical ways.