Oddfellows Hall, 22 Coquet Street, Oamaru. 106284, Culture Waitaki.
It was described at the time as Oamaru’s “first affray,” an incident involving a wartime “subversive sect,” and a returned serviceman of “excellent character” who stabbed one man with a bayonet, and shot another through the leg, all during a scuffle in the doorway of the Oddfellows Hall, in Coquet Street. A man was maimed for life; the armed assailant served only a matter of months in gaol. It could also be seen as one of this country's earliest acts of domestic terrorism.
Jehovah’s Witnesses in New Zealand, although their history reaches back to the late 19th century in the United States, only seemed to come to prominence here around the early 1930s, and principally due to actions by followers denouncing other Protestant denominations, and the Roman Catholic Church.
“A wordy demonstration, which culminated in-the summoning of a policeman, occurred outside the Mount Eden Baptist Church last evening, when the congregation, emerging from the door after the service, were confronted by about 10 militant - members of a sect named the Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who called upon the church people to “admit their errors and accept the truth.” Members of the congregation were stopped on their way out by several men and women, who asked them to accept tracts, for which a contribution of 3d or 6d was asked. “We are right! You are wrong!” was the burden of their oration, as they pressed their theological views upon the amazed congregation …“They called upon the congregation to depose their minister, one of them saying he was “doing no good” and was “living on the fat of the land.” The argument became so heated that somebody went for a policeman. On his arrival, the constable pleaded with the disputants to take their differences elsewhere. He told them they were not legally entitled to invade the church property and counselled them to leave immediately. After a vain attempt to convert the policeman to their particular theological interpretation, the disturbers saw they were making little progress and took their departure, shouting as they went, “Well, we have delivered our witness.” Several of the older members of the congregation were so disturbed as a result of the incident that they had to be supplied with escorts to see them home.”
(Hawke’s Bay Tribune, 29 November 1932)
This sort of incident would have done the followers no favours when it came to any tolerance of them from both mainstream faiths and denominations, or the government. In Timaru, September 1939, a peaceful Saturday was disrupted by loud speakers and a car.
Frederick Henry McAuley from Timaru, wrote to the Timaru Herald advising that Cr Hall’s reported remarks were inaccurate and untrue when it came to the American reports about the Jehovah’s Witnesses. McAuley was to be at the centre of the dramatic incident at Oamaru the following year.
Much worse in the eyes of the general public, in the era of World War II, was the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses were against fighting in the war. From Australia in April 1940, rumours abounded that they were some sort of “fifth column” and sympathetic to Nazi Germany. This was adamantly denied.
During that year, in Canada, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned as a subversive group. Early in October 1940, it was reported that a leader of a Jehovah’s Witnesses group in Tasmania was “a young German.” And here, in New Zealand, moves were being made in Parliament to enact a ban on the denomination. That same month, Fred McAuley would be shot at a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ gathering in Oamaru.
The gathering at the Oddfellows Hall took place on Sunday 13 October 1940. Gramophone records of a speech by “Judge” Rutherford, leader of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in America, were being played to around 40 who attended. A car with two men inside was noticed parked on the street near the hall. The meeting’s usher, A E George Robert Edwards, went up to the car and invited the men to the meeting, but instead they drove away.
“I would like to know if there is any way we can stop a person who goes round Timaru in a car broadcasting records on an extremely noisy loud speaker that must be a serious nuisance to any sick person in the neighbourhood.” said Cr W H Hall at a meeting of the Timaru Borough Council last night. Cr Hall said that on Saturday morning, while busy in the garden, a fearful blast of sound nearly blew his head off; this individual had stopped his car just opposite him and after a preliminary Western song gave him a record on the sins and iniquities of Rome that could be heard a quarter of a mile away and that greatly annoyed him. This individual, who represented the so-called Witnesses of Jehovah, either by accident or design, picked on the homes of Catholics to broadcast his, to them and to many others, he was sure, very offensive matter. He and an assistant were also distributing the literature of the notorious Judge Rutherford of USA, whose material was denied the use of the mails in America because of its obnoxious nature. The same Judge Rutherford, because of his unsavoury reputation, was not allowed to broadcast when in Australia some few months ago, or from any reputable station in USA.”
(Timaru Herald, 19 September 1939)
Frederick Henry McAuley from Timaru, wrote to the Timaru Herald advising that Cr Hall’s reported remarks were inaccurate and untrue when it came to the American reports about the Jehovah’s Witnesses. McAuley was to be at the centre of the dramatic incident at Oamaru the following year.
Much worse in the eyes of the general public, in the era of World War II, was the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses were against fighting in the war. From Australia in April 1940, rumours abounded that they were some sort of “fifth column” and sympathetic to Nazi Germany. This was adamantly denied.
“"We are not Fascists, Communists, pacifists or cowards. We can fight like hell, but only for Jehovah God. Jehovah's Witnesses make the best soldiers in the world, but we are soldiers only of the Lord. The moment a Jehovah's Witness fires a rifle at his fellow men in a devil's war, he forfeits his right to an afterlife.
“In Germany thousands of our members are in concentration camps because they would not fight. Hundreds have been butchered. They stood with hands in pockets, smiling. They never struck back, but our records show that they went down fighting. Hitler is a nasty fellow, a disciple of the devil. We could never admit him as a Jehovah's' Witness.
"We take no interest in the war, its progress, or outcome, except that it is in fulfilment of true Biblical prophecy. If forced to go, we will stand on the field of action and be shot down, for then we will be dying on the battlefield of the Lord. If Australia is invaded we will still not raise a hand. That would be an act of aggression. But if our own property is threatened, look out for fireworks. The Bible then gives us authority, 'An eye for an eye,' you know.”
(Auckland Star, 9 April 1940)
During that year, in Canada, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned as a subversive group. Early in October 1940, it was reported that a leader of a Jehovah’s Witnesses group in Tasmania was “a young German.” And here, in New Zealand, moves were being made in Parliament to enact a ban on the denomination. That same month, Fred McAuley would be shot at a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ gathering in Oamaru.
The gathering at the Oddfellows Hall took place on Sunday 13 October 1940. Gramophone records of a speech by “Judge” Rutherford, leader of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in America, were being played to around 40 who attended. A car with two men inside was noticed parked on the street near the hall. The meeting’s usher, A E George Robert Edwards, went up to the car and invited the men to the meeting, but instead they drove away.
William Meehan appeared at the entry to the hall, around 7.15 pm. Another usher, Hallett Ridling, invited him in “ … but he refused, and said he would go and get a couple of 'cobbers’ who he thought would like to hear the lecture.”
Then Ridling “ … saw the accused coming down the street a second time. The accused appeared at the hall door with a rifle and bayonet, and said: “I’ve got the wood on you now. Put up your hands."
“’The accused said he would shoot them if they disobeyed’", continued Ridling, as he testified before the court. Meehan also commanded Ridling to open the door. He did so and cried out, “Harry!” Meehan came at him with the bayonet. He warded the blow off with his hand, receiving a wound on the back of the hand. He got the end of the barrel of the rifle and tried to wrest it from Meehan, who accused pushed him toward the inner door, which opened, and the rifle went off. (Auckland Star, 11 December 1940)
Fred McAuley, also an usher that evening, had heard the commotion, and opened the inner door to the hall just as the shot was fired, the bullet going through McAuley’s right thigh. Ridling and Edwards then struck Meehan who fell out of the entrance and into the street. There Edwards fell on top of him and put a knee to Meehan’s throat. One constable was fetched, while another, Constable Buchanan, was already at the meeting and said Meehan smelt strongly of liquor. Meehan accused those at the meeting of being “left wingers, and I did not fight in the war for that sort of thing,” as well as saying, “That’s the way to get rid of Fifth Columnists.” But at the station, he was adamant that the rifle had gone off by accident, during the struggle at the doorway.
Meehan, a 42-year-old employee of the Waitaki Electric Power Board, father of five children, was arrested and charged initially with attempted murder.
“Senior-Sergeant T J McGregor said the accused was sober, but very excited and agitated. Witness found a discharged shell in the breech of the rifle, eight soft-nosed cartridges in the magazine and 78 rounds of ammunition in the accused’s private cupboard at the workshop at the power house.”
(Auckland Star, 11 December 1940)
Meehan later admitted in court that he’d had one beer before the attack in the hall, and had “lost his head.”
Meehan was born in Deborah, Otago in 1898. A motor mechanic by trade, his parents originated from Ireland. He served during the First World War but not at any of the war fronts. According to his military record (No. 78953), he was signed up for service in February 1918, embarked for Plymouth in England July 1918, but had a chequered record of absence without leave and forfeiture of pay in England until he was finally discharged in February 1920.
He re-attested for service on 1 August 1940, and joined the Oamaru National Reserve. He had been issued with a .303 rifle and bayonet by the Sergeant Major in charge, H. M. S. Bradbury, but not ammunition.
The victim, Fred McAuley, was also a returned serviceman (military file 7/979). Born in Oamaru in 1893, he had served in Egypt and the Western Front during the First World War. This, though, does not appear to have been mentioned during the court case.
Just a week after the incident, on 21 October 1940
“New Zealand designated Jehovah’s Witnesses as a subversive organization and a danger to public safety … Dozens of other Witnesses were brought before the courts; some were fined, and others were imprisoned for up to three months at a time … In 1944 the government considered releasing some of those held in detention camps. However, the military authorities objected because they were convinced that the Witnesses, if released, would continue to talk with others about their faith. The report stated: “While continued detention might offer some measure of control over the fanaticism of these types, it will never alter or change them.”
The Police Court hearing had to be delayed until December 1940, with McAuley in very poor condition in hospital, his leg so badly injured by the gun shot wound it had to be amputated at the hip.
Meehan’s defence counsel argued that because Meehan believed that the meeting that evening was seditious, he had every right to go there with a gun and bayonet to put a stop to it. The defence leaned heavily on trying to prove that the Jehovah’s Witnesses were indeed a seditious sect, and attempted to tear their core beliefs to pieces. The Crown’s case in response was a muddled one, consisting of eight charges, seven of which fell apart during the trial.
In the end, Meehan was found guilty only of assault on Edwards and McAuley, and was sentenced to two month’s hard labour for what his defence counsel called “a misguided excess of patriotism.” Reference was made during the trial to Meehan’s two year war service record, but not McAuley’s own longer record of war service, including time at the front during the First World War. He still found it in himself to be able to forgive his assailant.
“Some months afterward, Fred wrote a letter to his attacker, in which he extended his unconditional forgiveness. He said: “In the spirit of good will and friendliness, I would like to make it quite clear that I have no ill feeling whatever toward you and am glad to do as Jesus advises, namely, to forgive those who trespass against us.”
The ban in NZ on Jehovah’s Witnesses was lifted at the end of the war, but the RSA’s enmity toward them continued. Early in 1958 the NZRSA passed a resolution calling on borough councils and other bodies to ban Jehovah’s Witnesses to be in or anywhere near a war memorial, and they campaigned in vain for this to be adopted.
Meehan’s wife Ann died in 1942. He remained employed by the power board during the war, and was transferred to munitions work for a time in 1942. He had two more known court hearings, 1949 and 1953, where he was found guilty of driving while intoxicated. He died in July 1962.
There is nothing else known at the time of writing as to Fred McAuley's future after the amputation, left with only one leg due to a man bringing a loaded firearm and a bayonet to a peaceful gathering. According to his military record, he died in September 1965.
The former Manchester Unity Oddfellows Hall, 23 Coquet Street, Oamaru, 2023. Google StreetView.
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