RIOTOUS DEBATE AT COLLEGE.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 12

RIOTOUS DEBATE AT COLLEGE.

(MEMBERS AND STUDENTS. ! __ j SKIRMISHES IN ALDIKNUi. i Four Christchurch members ot Parliamcnt had a -riotous hour or two at Canterbury College last evening, when they took part in two debates with students in the Little Theatre. With a noisy back row and a woman immediately in front who interjected earnestly and often in sonic foreign accent, speakers had little or no peace. For the most part, however, nothing more than good-humoured banter was offered, and the speakers appeared to enjoy themselves as much as those who tried their best to make them uncomfortable. Two Labour members, Mr E. J. Howard and Mr H. T. Armstrong, debated against Mr C. F. Hart and Mr S. E. Russell, who argued that the policy of the Labour party would ruin the country, and two Government member?, Mr H. S. S. Kyle and Mr R. W. Hawke, defended themselves against Mr L. .Efl'ord and Mr I. Milner, who sought to prove that the Government had "bungled the unemployment problem." Mr Eflord was given the quietest hearing of the evening, mainly because he spoke before the arrival of a number of students who made for back row of seats and immediately started a private war with the woman sitting nearby, who persisted in interjecting in spite of the efforts of a man next to her to make her desist. He finally gave up and left her to the mcrcv of the students, who won a hard-fought battle two hours later. Asylum Housing. Mr Kyle provoked many interjections when he declared that tho patients in the asylum were better housed than some people. Someone asked him cheerily if he had been there, and the woman with the accent invited tlie speaker to try to live on £1 a week. Her invitation was so persif.tent that Mr Kyle row Id not «o on for h time, and then when he mentioned the name of Mr Ramsay MacDonaki there was much stamping and a litle more shouting from the woman with. the accent. Even as early as this the students ; in the back row were a little weary of the Accent. When the woman again tried to shout Mr Kyle down there I was much stamping from the back ! row and falsetto imitations from the j gallery, and noises which may have ' come from a Jew's harp or a cracked ! mouth-organ. Mr Kyle said he could | not bear the screams from Ihc gallery, j but the gallery said he would have to be a man, and gave him some falsetto cheersLadies, gentlemen, "and others" were then addressed by the chairman, Dr. C. E. Beeby. He reminded "the others" that even a politician might be right and that he at least deserved a hearing as a guest. These words earned the loudly expressed thanks of "the others." Fanfare From Gallery. A thin fanfare from the wind instrument in the gallery greeted Mr Milner, who was at cross purposes with the back row, which wanted to talk about dog's bodies when he tried to speak of local bodies. The woman with the accent became' ironically hysterical when the small farms plan was mentioned, and every highpitched laugh was echoed from the gallery. With Mr Milner talking at one end of the hall and the Accent almopt screaming at the other, no one knew exactly what either was saying. The back row did not want to hear Mr Milner on the moral aspects ot the unemployment situation. "1 see the moral renegades at the back are riot interested in the moral aspects," he said scathingly. This made the back row indignantly vociferous, and above the din the Accent told the speaker he had "bugs in the beehive." Mr Hawke had several minutes of quietness for, on opening, he said New Zealand ate so much butter that it could look no more in the face. But the back row soon returned to the attack, and, seeing Mr Hawke waving his arms in making a point, invited him to divert the meeting with a top dance. Mr Efford set out to score off MiKyle by saying he had taken them on a journey to the asylum, where he peemed more at home than the speaker did. "So you were there, too," a voice remarked with pained surprise. This disturbed the back row again and there wan much heated murmuring when Mr Efford was fin- ] ishing his reply and criticising the j Government for running to wheelbarj rows and shovels in providing relief! I work. A Policy in Form. i Mr Hart, who opened the debate on the Labour party's policy, was complimented on a "nice clean collar." The back row was not interested when he said the points in the Labour party's policy had to be put in good [form. j "Oh, chloroform," drawled a voije sleepily, and the rest of the back row yawned loudly. ] Mr Howard wanted to know what New Zealand got in return for its produce sent overseas. Not money, he said, but clothes made with shoddy material. "With sweated labour," said the Accent fiercely. But Mr Howard scored heavily in repartee after that. One man in the back row asked if he wanted to put little children to work. "No, send them here to the university, and give them a chance," said Mr Howard. "But that will, ruin them," came the reply. An earlier speaker had criticised houses, Mr Howard said. There were some wooden houses in Christchurch in a good state of repair although they were 40 years old. "Ah, but you have not seen ours," said someone sadly. The Back Row Wins. Mr Russell was given a studiedly polite hearing for a while, being thanked profusely for any "assurances" he gave, but he was almost howled down at times by the woman with the accent. He asked the audience to imagine a man getting £IOOO a year. This was denounced by the woman as "Too much," and even Mr Russell's references to a "certain sum of money" were challenged as too liberal. The back row then came to verbal grips in earnest, with the woman in front. It decided to hear her no more, and every time she interjected she was drowned with a surging "Sh," which finally drove her from the combat. The struggle was intense for a time, and the speaker on the Elatform was left helpless and uneard. But the back row won, «nd the Accent was heard no more. Mr Armstrong had a riotous time. and enjoyed it. He thumped an imaginary table to drive home his points. So the back row provided synchronised sound effects, md bumped the floor every time Mr Armstrong brought down his hand.