LIVELY REFORM MEETING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 245, 16 October 1925, Page 8

LIVELY REFORM MEETING.

MR. OLDFIELD HECKLED. The candidature of Mr. S. Oldfield, the Reform nominee, and his following of hecklers who intrude Labour views, continue* to be the chief entertainment of Auckland West. St. Stephen's schoolroom was crowded out last night when Mr. Oldfield spent a merry hour and a-half in extempore debates with his Labour interjeetors and in getting scraps of his views before the electors between times. After stating that his general policy was a fair deal all round as between capital and labour, and an effort to get increased production as a means of reducing rents and the cost of living, he proceeded, amid interjections and occasional ironical to criticise the Labour proposals and Labour criticisms. '" The- country was -prosperous, he eaid, and those who made an outcry about the national debt did not mention that nearly half of it was sunk in the railways, public works, etc.. which could be sold to a company and would bring the money back. He did not believe in the Government interfering with private enterprise, but it should encourage the secondary industries and thus help to make the country self-supporting.

A piping voice: What a beautiful thought! It was the freehold that had made this country what it was. A voice: Bankrupt. If Labour were in power they would introduce useihold and confiscate private homes and properties. In reply to an interjection he strongly deprecated any effort on the part of the Government to go in for the shipping business. "Then why have State trains? , ' The candidate replied that shipping was a very complicated business and more difficult to run than that of the railways. A running fire of commentary, and interjections on the lines given, kept up for an hour, and one interjector whose specialty was a. derisive and stentorian "Hear, hear," at disconcerting moments, was referred to by the chairman as "that noxious gentleman on the left," whereupon the man with the voice declared that he was as good as "the two noxious weeds on the platform." Thus he signed his ejectment order, for a man in blue then came after him, and to a chanted count-out by his comrades, the interjector obeyed the imperative touch on the shoulder from the constable, and went.

The candidate stated that he had no objection to fair heckling and interjecttions, so long as he could get his views before the meeting. All he wanted was a chance.

A voice: You never had a chance for this electorate.

After a number of questions had been put with further interruptions, a vote of thanks was carried.