LABOUR'S FINAL RALLY

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 145, 17 December 1919, Page 7

LABOUR'S FINAL RALLY

BIG MEETING IN TOWN HALL.

The final Labour rally, held in the Town Hall last evening, was one" of the most successful of the whole Labour campaign, the huge auditorium being packed with a sympathetic audience which applauded the speakers throughout. Mr. George Ward presided. The candidates for the various city and suburban seats, who were all well received, spoke in rotation. ** Mr. J. Read (Wellington North) pointed out, that - the capitalistic class, which he said had been exploiting them for so long, was now very anxious about getting the sympathies of Labour. (Laughter.) They all knew why, but he did not think they were going to be deceived any longer, and would now see, that they got their own repr.seijtatives. to look after their own interests. (Applause.) He looked forward confidently to the verdict of the polls. (Applause.) Mr. A. L. Monteith (Wellington East) spoke on the lines of Ms previous speeches. He said all through history all efforts at progress had been met with the ' bitterest hostility, and when any such measure was adopted its previous traducers posed as its friends. (Applause.) Even Christianity met with the same experience. (Applause.) Mr. P. J.. O'Regan said the people who applied the terms of " revolutionaries," "Bolsheviks," etc., to_ them showed, as proved by their advertisement in that night's Post, that they were exceedingly sensitive themselves. (Applause.) He strongly condemned indentured labour in Samoa and Fiji. (Applause.) Mrs.' Beck appealed to them to have long memories when they went to record their votes at the _ ballot box. (Applause.) They should ask themselves where their own interests lay. (Applause.) Mrs. Catlow, of the West Coast, also spoke. She defined capitalism as "an accumulation of the unpaid wages of the past." Mr. R. Semple (Wellington South) said the Government had been endeavouring to cover up its sins of the last five years by shouting such terms as " extremists," etc. Yet when asked to define the term they did not do so. (Applause.) Mr. P. Fraser (Wellington Central) urged them not to be mislead by the " Red " business.

Mr. A. W. Cro-kery (Wellington Suburbs) also spoke. The meeting concluded with cheers for Labour.