HECKLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 119, 22 May 1931, Page 8

HECKLED.

MINISTER OF LABOUR. QTAHUHU RAILWAYMEN. MB. SMITH V. THE OTHERS. MANY GRIEVANCES VOICED. I * " Bombarded with a running fire of interjections from the time he mounted the improvised platform until the whistle sounded for the men to resume work, the Hon. S. G. Smith, Minister of Labour, was prevented from delivering a connected address to a meeting of railway workshop employees at noon to-day. The appeal of the chairman, Mr. J. McDowell, made at the outset for a fair and impartial hearing for the Minister fell 011 deaf ears, and the result was a verbal duel between Mr. Smith and his hearers. At the conclusion a vote of confidence in the Labour party Was carried unanimously.

Fourteen Years in A.S.R.S. The Minister said lie had been told that he dared not come to Otahuliu, but he added, he had had uq compunction about addressing railway men. He looked back with a great deal of pleasure on his. service in the railways and his 14 years' association with the A.S.R.S. The experience lie had gained as a railwayman had enabled him to take up higher rank when the opportunity arrived. It was regrettable that Cabinet elevation had come for him at a time when the country was suffering an unprecedented drop in its national income, but in spite of what others said to the contrary, he firmly believed that there was no other way of meeting the country's financial obligations than by a reduction in wages. Voices: Eot! What about the cost of living ? The Minister: It has gone down. Voices: Rot! It has not. Other Voices: Why didn't you reduce the salaries of ILP.'s ?

The Minister: They have been reduced, and they are down 10 per cent. Another Interjector: What about the £100 bonus! Exacting Public Life. The Minister mentioned that he had given up everything to enter public life, which he had agreed to do against his better judgment, and he was a poor man to-day as a result. The statement was greeted with ironical laughter and a shout of "You don't look it." "I can prove it," retorted the Minister. An Interjector: What would you be drawing had you remained in the railWays ? The Minister: I cannot say. Turning on another interjcctor, the Minister exclaimed: "Why, you were not t>orn when I was working as a railwayman and for the rail way men. For 14 years I sacrificed the interests of ir.y wife and family to " A Voice: Sob stuff. We don't want to hear it. The Minister: lam entitled ,to a hearing. Let me tell you that the men who promise you the moon, and haven't the moon to give you, are the men who are responsible for what you lost in 1920. Loud Voices: Rot! "Where is the £70,000,000 you promised?" called out another interrupter. The Minister retorted that every promise he had made had Deen kept by him. Earlier Cut Averted. The Minister reminded the men that in spite of pressure that had been brought to bear last year to reduce the wages of the workers, the Government had succeeded in preventing that. Voices: Who brought the pressure? Another Voice: Colien. The Minister (to the interjector) : I don't think Cohen would lend yon anything. Continuing, the Minister said he had the most difficult job in New Zealand as Minister dealing with the unemployment problem. "'You will agree with that?"" he asked.

A Voice: You get well paid for it. The Minister: Do I look it? Voices: Yes. Speaking against further interruptions, the Minister said no one regretted more than he the dismissal of men, hut where was the money to come from ta keep them on? Voices: Why did you promise work at the last election? The Minister: But where is the money? Voices: In the banks. The Minister: Whose money is it? Voices: Ours! The Minister: Eight, are you prepared to lend it to me? "Yes," shouted several men. The Minister: Then lend me £10,000,000 to-day. Don't worry, Harry Holland won't he able to raise anything. Lung cannot raise it in Australia. Voices: Never mind about Australia. The Minister: Well, Mr. Eamsay MacDonald— Voices: Or England, either. The Minister said the money in the

Post Office Savings Bank available for lending to tlie Government was not the money of Jews but tlie savings of the people of New Zealand. A Voice: You can't be thrifty on twelve bob a day! Whose Policy? Proceeding, the Minister said he was* not defending the private banks. He had always believed in a State bank. Voices: Is the United policy one for a State bank? "Come now," said the Minister, "four speaking at once—'' A Voice: Why are you following Coates ? The Minister: We are not following his -policy at all. Loud Voices: You are. You are doing what you are told. The Minister: We are not. Have you ever tried doing what you are told? A Voice: Yes in the railways (Laughter.) The Minister: I did not always do what I was told when I was there. A Voice: You have asked Coates to join you. The MNfeter: We are following a policy we believe to be in the best in-t»-fests of the country.

A Voice: Of the foreign bondholder! The Minister: Do you chaps really believe that nonsense? It has heen stated that the Prime Minister took his instructions from Sir Otto Ni'emeyer. Mr. Forbes has never met Sir Otto in his life, and he has never had a communication from him, excepting the report dealing with the establishment of a reserve bank. The Minister added that, of course, the people had the right to vote for -whom they liked. A Voice: That is one thing you can't tjfcke away.

The Minister: And I would not take it away cither, but if votes were allocated on a graduated scale you would get a quarter-vote! The Minister said he had tried to do something for the 36,000 unemployed, and ho was doing more than was being attempted in any other country. A Voice: Bunkum. Mr.' Smith said that if he could have the £1,300,000 required to meet the loss 011 the railways he would not have single men working for two days a week at 0/ a day. A Reader of " Hansard." At this stage one of the men took it upon himself to convert his interruptions into a miniature speech, during the course of which he confessed that he read "Hansard" from cover to cover. " I must congratulate you 011 reading ' Hansard' from cover to cover," said the Minister, when the man paused for breath. " You are the first I have ever met." Mr. Smith went on to say that he had to regard the unemployment question from the point of view of everyone concerned, not the standpoint of a section. Nobody grieved more over the railway dismissals than '• Bill Veitch and Sid Smith."

"I don't care about your howls," said the Minister in reply to the jeers of the men. A Voice: But your party engineered it. The Minister: Rubbish! Engineered it! What a suggestion to make! Voices: Stop it, then. A Voice: You promised at last election to cure unemployment. The Minister: The only thing that would cure you would be two doctors. Voices: They need a doctor for you. Further interjections were fired at the Minister when he declared that the Government was entitled to a little more consideration than they were receiving from rapine of those who had such a lot to saly. "Will you deny that you have brought degradation to the women of New Zealand?" shouted one man. "Absolutely," replied the Minister. Union Officials' Salaries. Someone raised the question of the reduction of the wages of the char-, women at Parliament House, and the Minister replied that the men who made the fuss over tl ose employees were those whose policy was dictated by the. highly paid union officials in Wellington, who had never sacrificed one six-' pence through the unemployment prob-' lem. A Voice: Have you authentic proof of that statement? The Minister: There has been 110 reduction in the salaries of those ofli-

cials. Voices: That is not true. The Minister: Did you ever see their balance-sheets ? "Yes,"' said several of the "audience." The Minister challenged any of the men to produce the balance-sheet of the New Zealand Waterside Workers' Federation within six hours. A Voice: We don't carry our union balance-sheets around with us. When the chairman asked if anyone desired to move a resolution, it was moved and seconded by the gathering that the Minister be thanked for his address and that the meeting affirm its confidence in the Labour party. The motion was carried unanimously. After the -gathering broke up, the Minister met privately the men from the workshops who are at present under notice of dismissal.