Waterside worker entering the Trades Hall in Vivian Street, Wellington

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The Maoriland Worker Printing and Publishing Ltd was a noted left-wing establishment which walked the tightrope in New Zealad's inter-war period. It initially operated out of 290 Wakefield Street where it printed the popular labour movement papers, N.Z. Worker and Maoriland Worker, then moved to the Trades Hall at 126 Vivian Street in 1928. IN 1921, Patrick Hodgkins Hickey, printer and former Secretary of the United Federation of Labour, was charged with breaches of War Regulation no. 4 for printing a pamphlet entitled The Irish Trgedy: Scotland's Disgrace which, it was claimed, expressed seditious intent and encouraged violence and lawlessness. The case was thrown out, but did not act as a deterrent to Hickey who continued to print much locally-grown material concerning religion, science, labour, and socialism.

Further reading:

• Peter Franks, Print & Polictics. A history of the Trade Unions in the New Zealand Printing Industry, 1865-1995. Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2001