WELLINGTON NORTH ELECTION

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 51, 28 February 1918, Page 4

WELLINGTON NORTH ELECTION

« — THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT'S APPEAL. LEADERS STAND TOGETHER. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. There were many contributing causes to the noisy character of the great meeting held in the Town Hall last night. First of all, a large section of the audience, including many electors, who were impelled neither by political nor personal prejudices, resented the party leaders' assumption that the "free and independents" of Wellington North were bound, by trig compact made between tnemselves concerning by-elections during the course of the war. Then there was another section, consisting mainly of good Reformers, that objected to Mr. Aiassey's selection of a candidate, and yet another that questioned the right of Ministers to interfere with a purely local contest. Added to these, of course, were the partisans of Mr. Luke's opponents, who hoped to help their own particular candidate by discrediting as best they could the appeals made by Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward on behalf of the Government's nominee. A BELLICOSE CHAIRMAN. Probably the chairman, in his earnest desire to obtain a "fair hearing" for the two speakers, was as much to blame as anyone else for what occurred. Mr. John Hutcheson, who has contested many a hard-fought election himself, and really ought to have been better acquainted with the temper of a Wellington crowd, started badly by announcing himself, quite unnecessarily, asrar strong supporter of Mr. Luke, and implying, when this confession provoked some interruption. MrJHoJland's supporters were "a bowling lot of wolves." Later he selected for ejection from the fruTl a young man wearing a returned soldier's badge, who had challenged Mr. Massey's claim to have made adequate provision for the men coming back from the front, and from this point his hold on the meeting was entirely lost. The Prime Minister faced the storm prepared for him with bluff good humour, and on the whole did very well, but all through his speech he suffered from the chairman's opening indiscretions. | MR. MASSEY'S. DETERMINATION. ! Mr. Massey made it quite clear from the first that he intended to have his I say, no matter what efforts the noisy j section of the audience might put forth to prevent him being heard. His resolution never wholly broke down the. opposition; indeed portions of his speech to people any distance from the stage were nothing more than dumb show, but he persevered to the hitter end, and gradually won a growing volume of applause from the big crowd that I occasionally caught complete sentences from his stirring vindication of the policy and administration of the National Government. When he sat down after shouting, sometimes above and sometimes below the tumult, and occasionally addressing himself only to the reporters, he was rewarded for his effort by an outburst of clapping and cheering, which completely overwhelmed the noises of disapproval. SLR JOSEPH WARD'S CANDOUR. By the time Sir Joseph Ward rose to speak the forces of the hostile demonstration were weary, and to some extent broken, and the Minister of Finance received a much less noisy hearing than his colleague had received. ° This was not on account of his avoiding highly controversial subjects. Beginning with a sheaf of notes in hi 3 hand, he laid it aside within the first five minutes, and with that marvellous carrying voice of his rising above every attempt at interruption, reached the uttermost corner of the hall with an appeal to the members of his party to "play the game" and honour the compact between the leaders. He was not hi agreement with Mr Lukes politics himself, and he saw as clear as day the great political revolution for the better that would come with peace. But their present ]ob w as to win the war, and towards this end every personal and party prejudices must be subjugated. It was a forcible and effective speech, made possible by the courap and persistence with which MiMassey had cleared the WHy. An inquest regarding the death of Lawrence A. Wilkes, a farmer, aged 30 years, who died at the Auckland Hospital yesterday, was held before Mr. E C Cutten, SJt, this morning. Evidence was given by the father of deceased that his son wrote him from the Hospital, and mthe letter said that he was cominghome from a sale with a horse, and the rope wrfh which he was leading the horse while in the buggy got round his leg. The horse pulled back, polled Wilkes' leg over the back of the buggy, and broke it. VV likes was sent to the HospitaL where : witness saw him. Wilkes then appeared ye *>**- Dr. J. L. Will said that he conducted a post mortem, examination of the body, and found that deceased was suffering from septic pneumonia involv|mg the base of the right lung. The j inquest was then adjourned to get further evidence.