DISCORDANT NOTE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 284, 27 August 1930, Page 10

DISCORDANT NOTE

Workless Demonstrators HOOTS FOR MR. FORBES Scene at Auckland Wharf Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 26. An attempted demonstration by unemployed on the Prince Wharf at the departure of the Prime Minister, the Hon. G. W. Forbes, for London, proved a fiasco. The men did not succeed in meeting Mr. Forbes, and if they saw him at all it could only have been at the rail of the liner as she moved away from her berth. A party of about 30 men, with a banner inscribed “One Big Union for Unemployed and Casual Workers,” arrived on the wharf some time before the Prime Minister was due and formed up in the roadway between two sheds near the liner’s bow. After they had beguiled their wait with occasional shouts of “We want Forbes,” the leaders allowed themselves to be persuaded that the official party which was to attend the farewell gathering in one of the sheds would enter it by another roadway through which passengers and others were being admitted to the berth. The men therefore marched to the other entry and tried to make way through the open iron gates. These were quickly closed after a few scuttles by Harbour Board officials and police. Meanwhile Mr. Forbes- and his party had entered the shed at the other end.

The hooting was heard as the Prime Minister was making a little speech to United Party supporters on the upper floor. “It is only their way of cheering,” he remarked. “It is a different form of language, but it comes from the heart.”

The party descended by the staircase and reached the berth unseen by the demonstrators, who raised no further noise.