MR. ATMORE GIVES ADVICE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 162, 27 March 1923, Page 8

MR. ATMORE GIVES ADVICE

I :-x TO THE PEOPLE OF TAURANGA.

BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION. Tauranga, March 26.

Mr. H. Atmore, M.P., for Nelson, addressed a crowded meeting in the Town Hall to-night. He opened by saying that he eame not to dictate to the electors, but to put the position of the Dominion before 7 them —not from a partisan point of view, but as be and others saw it—and to state why the electors should return to Parliament the foremost financier in New Zealand. He urged the electors not to-be swayed by the Prune Minister’s threat of a penalty of £BO,OOO for another election if Sir Joseph Ward was elected. The electors had been urged on sentimental grounds to return Mr. MacMillan. He did not believe that the latj Sir William Herries would seek to tie the hands of the people; but if they were to be swayed b.v sentiment, then they should return a man the equal of Sir William Herries, and a man who. above all others, was re' quired in Parliament at the present time. Referring to the ministers and members now in tho electorate, Mr Atmore said that they were almost numerous enough to hold a meeting of Parliament.

The position in New Zealand at present was that the country could not afford to have such a man as Sir Joseph Ward out of Parliament. He quoted from Mr. Skerrett, K.C., and others and from official documents to show the present position of the Dominion. The Primo Minister, he observed had rejieatedlv said that New Zealand was round the corner, but in face of the position as revealed by the Government’s own figures the country wondered how many corners there were to turn. The greatest cause of stagnation and unemployment was over-taxation. He claimed that there was room in the House for both Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Massey, and if electors of Tauranga interpreted the wish of the rest of tho people of Now Zealand, they would return Sir Joseph Ward.

An enthusiastic meeting concluded with a vote of thanks to Mr. Atmore for his address, and a vote of confidence in the Liberal Party and in Sir Joseph Ward as its representative. Mr. Atmore will speak nt To Puke to-morrow night, and Sir Joseph Ward here.