AUCKLAND BAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 145, 16 December 1939, Page 8

AUCKLAND BAN

STREET MEETINGS

USE OF LOUDSPEAKERS

(By Telegraph—Pros.* Association.) ■ AUCKLAND, December 14. A lively debate arose at a meeting of the £ity Council, when a recommendation was submitted by the public safety committee that permits allowing the use of loudspeakers for meetings in Quay Street on Sunday afternoons and in Cobden Street, Newton, on Friday evenings, should be; withdrawn. The recommendation was adopted with three dissentient votes. | The public safety committee reported there were numerous complaints regarding the meetings, which appeared to be aggravated by loudspeakers. When the permits were granted in August, they were made conditional upon the' speakers being operated at a moderate volume, and it was stipulated that, in the event of any complaints or objection from bona fide residents in either vicinity, the permits would be immediately discontinued. Councillor Armstrong asserted that complaints were inspired and not volunteered, and that the move to ban loudspeakers was against Communism and not the amplifiers. The Deputy Mayor. Councillor Allum, said the complaints had been so numerous that it was no longer | wise to permit the use of loudspeakers. The Mayor, Sir Ernest Davis, advised the withdrawal of an amendment that the attention of the police be called to the nature of the propaganda being circulated at the meetings. "It is outside our sphere of politics," Sir Ernest said. "It is for the authorities and not the council to take action, if it is necessary." The Town Clerk, Mr. J. Melling, reported that political meetings in the street were not permitted in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Dr. McElroy gave notice of motion that the existing bylaws be amended to bring Auckland's position into line with the policy adopted by the southern cities during the war.