FAIR PLAY FOR CANDIDATES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 248, 19 October 1928, Page 6

FAIR PLAY FOR CANDIDATES.

The famous Tennyson saying, that in England, whether "girt by friends or foes a man may speak the thing he will," cannot be taken as universally true. There are times when —to make a deliberate "bull"—all that can be heard of a Parliamentary candidate's speech is the moving of his lips. One gathers that in the home of the mother of representative institutions and free speech there are proportionately a larger number of rowdy meetings than there are in this newer Britain. With us, also, time seems ~to have worked an improvement. In earlier days election meetings were often livelier, to use a mild term. In those days the throwing of words was apt to be alternated with the hurling of missiles. We may congratulate ourselves on this improvement in manners. A certain amount of "heckling" is quite legitimate. It gives spice to a meeting, sharpens the vits of the candidate (if he has any), and brings out political points that otherwise might not be touched on. Many a candidate has owed much to his readiness, and we have members in our own Parliament who thrive on interruptions and welcome them. "I wouldn't give you a vote if you were the Angel Gabriel," shouted an English "heckler." "If I were, the Angel Gabriel you wouldn't be on the register" was the suave and swift reply. Then, there is the story of the woman who told the Australian George Reid that if she was his wife she would give him poison. "Madam, if I was your husband I would take it." Interruption, however, should not be continuous. To deny a candidate a hearing, even though you detest his politics, is unchivalrous and strikes at the right of free speech, which the noisy objectors would demand for themselves. There are signs that as the. elections draw nearer the temperature of meetings is rising, so it may be profitable to utter a warning and an appeal. Passionate, politicians among electors are entitled to attempt to score off a candidate, but they are not entitled to prevent him saying what he wishes to say. '