LABOUR AND OPPOSITION TO CONSCRIPTION

The West Coast of the South Island, with its large Irish population and entrenched tradeunion tradition, was a stronghold for the anti-conscription movement. It is also recognised as the key location in the birth of the New Zealand Labour Party which was formed in 1916, just months before the introduction of conscription.

In terms of built heritage, it is hard to look past the Runanga Miners’ Hall (Category 1) for its symbolic attachment to conscientious objection. While the hall is a replacement (the original was built in 1908 and burned down in 1937), as Heritage New Zealand Heritage Advisor Robyn Burgess notes, the hall and its predecessor have a “strong and lasting connection” to some of the key figures in the rise of the Labour Party, of whom many were the most vocal opponents of conscription.

Several Labour leaders were arrested for sedition, including prominent Runanga unionist Bob Semple, who was later a cabinet minister in the first Labour Government. Patrick (Paddy) Webb, the MP for West Coast, lost his seat due to his anticonscription stance and went to jail but was re-elected while serving his sentence. He went on to become a minister in the first Labour Government.

Prime Minister Peter Fraser, imprisoned for speaking out against conscription.

In 1930 the Mount Cook Prison building was demolished to make way for a new National War Memorial and a National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, which was completed in 1936 and is now part of Massey University’s Wellington campus.

Only members of religious groups that had, before the outbreak of war, declared military service “contrary to divine revelation” could be exempted from service. Many of these religious conscientious objectors were sent to Weraroa State Farm to work out their military service. Known then as Weraroa Experimental Farm, the site is now a Category 1 Historic Place. Heritage New Zealand Heritage Advisor Natasha Naus says its association with conscientious objection “provides an interesting moment in the military mobilisation of New Zealanders during World War I and the treatment of those who refused to fight”.

HOW TO MEMORIALISE THE “SHIRKERS”?

For much of the 20th century they were reviled as shirkers and cowards, unworthy of citizenship, so the fact that New Zealand has no formal memorial recognising them should come as no surprise.

Yet, as David Grant suggests, these dissenters – Baxter and Briggs in particular – showed personal characteristics “which most New Zealanders hold dear: humility, determination, idealism, strength of character, sacrifice”.

Since the anti-Vietnam movement of the 1960s and the anti-nuclear politics of the ’70s and ’80s, New Zealand’s national identity has become far less militaristic, allowing the perception of conscientious objectors to lighten considerably. We Will Not Cease, Archibald Baxter’s startling account of his treatment by the state, has been republished several times since 1968, creating a wide audience for a story few New Zealanders previously knew.

Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson has expressed a desire to see some kind of memorial at the National War Memorial in Wellington. As yet there is nothing official planned, but the possibility is in place.

The Archibald Baxter Memorial Trust has been set up to honour Baxter and other conscientious objectors, with plans for a memorial in his home town of Dunedin. The trust hopes it could be unveiled to mark the Passchendaele centenary in 2017 but first needs to raise up to $100,000.

David Grant, who is part of the trust, says the story of conscientious objectors needs to be more widely known and the site, possibly in the Dunedin Botanic Garden, would be a focus for reflection on the role of Baxter and others in rejecting warfare. “We’re trying to get that story recognised as part of the wider story of the First World War.” He says he would like to see more sites in New Zealand that are associated with conscientious objection given recognition, including the former home of Mark Briggs in Nikau Street in Palmerston North.