MEETING IN UPROAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 24

MEETING IN UPROAR

GREY LYNN CONTEST

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, September 28.

Constant interjections, cheers for the Labour Party and individual members, and a variety of hostile demonstrations which culminated in an uproar, marked a political meeting addressed by Mr. J. A. Govan, National candidate for Grey Lynn, in the Grey Lynn Library. So numerous were the interjections'that the speaker was rarely permitted to finish the topic on which he had embarked, and it was impossible for him to give a coherent outline of his* policy. The crowd filled the hall,' taking all the seating accommodatipn, standing along the walls, and packing at the rear'and in the wings of the stage. All the accommodation was occupied some time before the meeting started, and more than 200 gathered outside and listened through a loudspeaker system.

Pandemonium broke out when Mr; Goyan alleged that Labour candidates had been warned not to discuss; soldiers or to answer questions about them. A. man in the audience .Who stated that he was a representative of the Disabled Soldiers' Welfare Association then rose and asked to be allowed to make a statement, and Mr. Govan invited him on to the platform. He repeated Mr. Govan's allegations and continued'to speak amid a babel of noise. Soon many of the audience were standing on their feet and shouting in unison, twice counting the speaker out during this period.

A man pulled the bolt of the main door and invited the crowd outside to come in. There was a -rush for the door, and although a few got through, the remainder were ejected by a police sergeant and three constables.

The meeting continued for a short period longer and then a man in the audience moved a vote of absolute noconfidence in the speaker and confi-. dence in the Labour Party. Boos greeted the chairman's refusal to accept the motion.

* "In view of the fact that the candidate supports the National Party's objective of British liberty and freedom, I move a motion of confidence in him," said another man. Amid derisive cheering the motion was declared carried.