UNDER FIRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 24

UNDER FIRE.

PAPAKURA'S NIGHT OUT.

HON. A. HAMILTON'S MEETING

All was not a bed of political roses for the Hon. Adam Hamilton, leader of the National party, when speaking at the Star Theatre, l'apakura, last evening. His audience, judged by the alternate bursts of approval and indignant disagreement, was composed of about 80 per cent National party supporters and 20 per ccnt of other political faiths who kept up a running fire of interjections. The first episode occurred shortly after Mr. Hamilton commenced to speak. An interjector, determined and insistent, got into trouble with two rather burly gentlemen who were preparing to "heave him out." There was much tugging, puffing and struggling, but the two large ejectors who were acting in the interests of law and order were evidently not too successful. The ejectee, who was solidly built, arose and, in a voice that rang through the theatre, demanded that his two opponents leave him alone. "Take these two bruisers off me," he said. "They are tearing my clothes." The audience rocked with laughter and *Mr. Hamilton said he would give the offender another chance. Over in the same direction a few minutes later somebody could be heard accusing somebody else of smelling strongly of whisky, but nobody seemed to gather just what the trouble was, and it was smoothed over. Peace reigned once again until the chairman, Mr. S. Evans, Mayor of Papakura, took exception to a statement that Mr. Hamilton was telling" half-truths. The interjector then accused the chairman of being "more thin-skinned than Mr. Hamilton." This aroused the ire of Mr. Hamilton himself. "Don't you say that," he said. "Don't refer to the Mayor of this town in that way. He is doing his duty as a public-spirited man. And. further, you can't say I am telling half-truths. In any casJ, if you want to address a meeting you can engage a hall and I will chair your meeting for you." (Loud cheers, jeers and clapping.) Another piece of by-play in which the chairman was the victim came when the speaker was talking of rating and the necessity of the people's representatives keeping it at the lowest level. "You tell that to the joker sitting beside you," said some wag out of a momentary silence. The Mayor of Papakura blushed delicately and from the manner he joined in the laughter it was obvious that his mayoral conscience was clear. I And so it went on all night. There i was a steady and not too silent undertone of opposition, and Mr. Hamilton's remarks were consistently questioned. But everything was reasonably goodhumoured and on the volume of cheers | the speaker was supported by four-fifths lof the audience. But it was evident that the election epirit ie rising from its three-year slumber.