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Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20955, 8 September 1933, Page 6

A persistent interjector at recent election meetings, Mr C. E. Baldwin, who had many sharp exchanges with Mr W. J. Broadfoot, M.P., at a meeting last evening at Woolston, was badly beaten in one short argument. Mr Baldwin asked if the speaker thought that it had been proper for the Government to lend £ 8000 from the unemployment funds for the erection of an hotel in Napier. "I think that the granting of the subsidy was perfectly correct," replied Mr Broadfoot. "Furthermore, the sponsor and mover in the scheme was the Labour member, Mr W. E. Barnard, who defended his action in the House by pointing out that the grant allowed many artisans to be employed at standard rates of pay." The Government would get the money back. "You've made a miss, Charlie," and "Bowled out" were remarks which greeted the reply. A startling example of the disastrous nature of the fall in prices for skins and hides during the season immediately preceeditig this one was given by Mr F. W. Freeman, Coalition candidate for Lyttelton, speaking at St. Martins last night. Mr Freeman, who was illustrating the dire need of the farming community which justified Government action in protecting and supporting it, produced a letter sent by brokers to a prominent farmer on Banks Peninsula, who owns a block of 2200 acres in which £40,000 is invested. The letter informed the farmer that the 2873 lamb pelts, after deduction of charges, freight, and insurance, etc., had netted him £2 15s 4d! "That is an instance of what the farmers were up against," Mr Freeman added. "But to-day there are signs everywhere that a brighter era is ahead. I am certain that the tide has turned."