"SUNDAY LOCKERS."

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1910, Page 9

"SUNDAY LOCKERS."

TROUBLE AT A WORKING MEN'S CLUB. [BT TELEGRAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. There was a stormy and disorderly meeting in the yard of the Sydenham Working. Men's Club last evening, following upon a special tonveued mpeting of the club members, at which Mr. A. A very, a member of the management committee of the dub, desired to bring forward a motion doing away with the "Sunday locker" system, upder which members aie allowed to buy supplies of liquor for Sunday consumption, and store them in their lockers. The special meeting- was a very short one. A point of order was. raised by Mr. Wiltshire, that the meeting was convened for a specific purpose, and that no side issues could be considered, and Mr. Avery was not allowed to move his motion. The ruling on this point was received with prolonged hooting, directed at Mr. Avery. Mr. Avery then announced his intention of fddres&ing the members, of whom there was a goodly number present, on the footpath outside the club premises, and went out for that purpose. The members, however, refused to come out and listen to him, and he went back to the yard outiide tho meeting hall of the club and started a speech. Mr. Avery said he had been appointed a member of the club committee, and considered it his duty to impiuve the management of the club. He had always been fair, squaie, and above board with the members. He w.iii not a purist or a pulpitbanger, but he wanted lo do away with the locker system because it was not a good thing. At this stage, a Lyttellon limes reporter, who was taking notes of Mr. Avery's remnikfi in the club yard, was approached by a member of the committee and asked to withdraw fvom the club premises— a request that was at once complied with. Mr. Avery's remarks, v\eie, however, quite audible from the footpath outside. Later in the evening Mr. Avery was seen by a reporter and said that he had made every effort in his power at the special meeting to have the pioccedings conducted in camera. He had pointed out to the members that if he was not given an opportunity of moving his proposition, tad speaking lo it, he

would have to go outside and express In-, views. After the informal outdoor meeting, he had received notice that he was suspended from all privileges of the club until next committee meeting.