BLOWS STRUCK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 229, 26 September 1936, Page 10

BLOWS STRUCK.

OPEN AIR MEETING.

SCUFFLE AT ELLERSLIE.

ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS

Allegations that vicious blows were struck by two men who assaulted liim in the course of a political meeting at Ellerslie last night were made to-day by Mr. Brian Kingston, a member of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and a well-known city solicitor. A third man was involved when Mr. .Kingston endeavoured to climb on to a motor truck from which speeches were being broadcast, but when police assistance arrived the three men had disappeared.

"We were broadcasting speeches from a motor truck equipped with live loud speakers," explained Mr. Kingston this mo riling. "The truck was parked at the corner of Ladies' Mile and the main road through Ellerslie township. A'crowd of upwards of 130 was gathered about the truck and there was persistent heckling, jeering and booing. We had been carrying on for about half an hour when the line giving power from a nearby house to the broadcast equipment was cut. After that, it was almost impossible for the speakers to make themselves heard." About 5.15 two or three of the crowd started to pull down a sign on the lorry "Vote for Fred Doidge." "I got down from the truck," said Mr. Kingston, "and asked them to leave it alone. I told them we would want it for the next few nights. A couple of them asked me if I wanted 'to go them' —if I wanted to fight. I told them I did not want to get into any kind of fracas. I walked round to the back of the truck and was standing there with my hands in mv overcoat pockets when two of them landed me punches to the jaw. I started to climb up on to the truck, but three of them started to pull me down." Assailants Disappear. With the buttons ripped off his coat, Mr. Kingston broke free and went to find police assistance. He. said that I when eventually the police _ arrived among the crowd, the three men involved bad disappeared. He believed ;he 'could identify the inert, who were about 25- or 27 years of age. : ■ ~; \ .c :■ When the; scuffle- - took'.-pla-ce v the National candidate for Manukau, Mi. F. W. Doidge, on whose behalf the meeting • was being held, was addressing a meeting in another part of the electorate. . . . , .