SCENE IN HOUSE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 10

SCENE IN HOUSE.

I ADDRESS FROM GALLERY. WOMAN FROM AUCKLAND. CHILD WELFARE ACT. (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The decorum, of the House wa« disturbed at its opening this afternoon by a woman who attempted to address members from the front row of the Ladies' Gallery. Orderlies were so taken by surprise that the woman was able to reel off many sentences before she was interrupted and induced to sit down, because Mr. Speaker was commencing the opening prayer.

Immediately this was completed, the woman again walked to the front and started another address, the purport of which was not clear in the Presfe Gallery. Officers of the House led her quietly away, but she resisted long enough to tear up a document which sh6 held in her hand, exclaiming: "There's your Child Welfare Act." She then threw the pieces on to the floor of the House.

It is understood that in the course of her earlier remarks she referred to "a young girl who plunged into Auckland Harbour rather than continue to be a State ward." , ■tJ

It was subsequently ascertained that the woman, who was well-dressed and middle-aged, was Miss C. C. McAdam, of Auckland. She had been associated with the recent agitation in Auckland agains-t the Child Welfare Act, and stated that she also wished to bring before Parliament the grievances of workless girls. She handed to the police an article from the "Auckland Star" of recent issue headed "Positions for Girls," "The Workless Army," and complained that members of Parliament had refused to listen to her representations: