BIG AUDIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1938, Page 7

BIG AUDIENCE.

50,000 ADDRESSED.

ELECTION BROADCAST.

SYDNEY EVENT RECALLED.

Winner of a hurricane election campaign. in which he made political history by addressing the whole of His electorate one evening through loudspeakers. Mr. H. H. Mason. K.C.. M.L.A., of Sydney, arrived by the Wanganella to-day to spend a. holiday of three weeks in New Zealand.

"It was easy," he said, speaking of his big address. "I was on top of a block of flats in the centre of the electorate. and people five miles awav heard me without difficulty. Teople had no means of switching on or off, so they had to listen, and. of course, there were a few protests afterwards. At close quarters the broadcast was much too loud in some places, and in other places where my amplified voice hit against walls and buildings the effect was not altogether satisfactory, but generally speaking the experiment was a success."

Mr. Mason mentioned that it was the only time a broadcast of this kind had ever been given in an election campaign in any part of the world. He was able to speak to the 50.000 people in his electorate with no more effort than was required to address a full hall, and people heard him without the trouble of having to attend a meeting. While sitting in their homes, or going about their ordinary activities, the electors heard the whole of his address clearly, and 110 interference was caused, except —and he smiled —with listening to the regular radio broadcasts. New Terror for Elections. Remarking that a broadcast which people could not switch 011 or off as they pleased required to be controlled with discretion, Mr. Mason said it had added a new terror to electioneering, and if the method were develojied there would have to be State supervision. The cost of broadcasting in this way was not great, and therefore candidates might be tempted to use loudspeakers in order to reduce the number of meetings, also as an effective means of replying to their opponents in the last few days of a campaign. There were thus numerous possibilities of confusion.

The campaign in which Mr. Mason took part was a by-election in Darlinghurst, an important Sydney electorate, last June, which was limited to a fortnight. In a poll of about 18,000 he had the narrow majority of 255; but he reflected that he had beaten a wellorganised opposition, and admitted that the broadcast was probably a factor in achieving the victory.