CALLED OUT "LIAR"

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 132, 7 June 1939, Page 13

CALLED OUT "LIAR"

EJECTION BY POLICE

SEQUEL BEFORE MAGISTRATE

(By Telecrraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHtTRCH. This Day

"Something more than a mere interjection is needed to create a disturbance at a political meeting," said Mr. K. G. Archer in the Magistrate's Court, before Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., this morning, when defending two men charged with disturbing a public meeting on May 25. He entered pleas of guilty. l The defendants were John McGuire, labourer, and Henry Richard Woodham, labourer. Each was fined 30s and costs. "These men, who had no active in-. terest in the election, coming from districts outside the electorate, persisted in asking impossible questions," said Sub-Inspector Packer. "They j were asked to refrain by the chairman, but the questioning continued, and later McGuire called to the speaker (Mr. M. E. Lyons): 'Liar.' The men were ordered out by the police at the request of the chairman, and when they left several others left also."

Mr. Archer said he could not agree with the sub-inspector's contention that the defendants were not interested parties because they were not electors. Several gentlemen had come from all parts of New Zealand for. the election and the whole Dominion was watching it with interest. Something more than a mere interjection was needed to create a disturbance.

The men only interjected, leaving the hall quietly when requested. The candidate had repeated a canard which previously caused a great deal of heat, said counsel, and believing the candidate guilty of "terminological inexactitude" in repeating it, McGuire had called him "Liar."