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In 1878, the Community found that the Washermen were on strike and that there were no means of getting clothes washed, the season being the very height of summer, the inconvenience thereby occasioned may be imagined.
An enquiry was instituted, and it was ascertained that the cause of this sudden strike amongst the Washermen, was that the perambulation of the War Department Reserves had taken place, and that without any reference to the Colonial Government, the Commanding Royal Engineer having obtained the local Police assistance by direct appeal to the head of the Police, and in ignorance of the real limit of the War Department grounds, destroyed a number of "Washermen's Sheds up the ravine which forms the western limit of the War Department Reserve, almost all above the highest boundary point, and belonging to individuals who claimed to be living under the protection of the Colonial Government.
After the panic consequent upon this raid had subsided, the Washermen upon ascertaining that they had not been wronged...
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