P.P.A. AND THE ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 18136, 28 November 1922, Page 3

P.P.A. AND THE ELECTION

DENUNCIATION OS' LABOR POLITICIANS. HR GRIFFITH AND MR GILCHRIST. About a score o£ Bareneboarne residents assembled last evening to hear an address bv Mr S. G. Griffith, the Otago district organiser for the Protest-ant Poll tidal Association. The mayor (.Mr H. L. Moller) presidedMr Griffith said that personally he was ail in sympathy with Labor, and when the time came that worthy representatives were found for the loyal, hard-working men who formed the backbone of the dominion he would be found identified with them. But these men were too openminded. to be able to follow the -devious twists in the minds of some politicians, and many-of them had been deceived into giving their support to the body that was erroneously known as the I/abor laity* who did not represent the laboring class nearly so much as he himself. He would guarantee there was not a man of them whose hands were as hard and callous as his had been. He knew what it meant to work, and he knew that with the laboring man lay the destiny of the dominion. There was nothing he regretted more than that so many were being deceived by the extreme element of the Labor Party. He had not an acquaintance with Mr Munro, but he had heard good things about him, and if Mr Munro had kept apart from extreme Labor he did not know 2 he could have stood before them and advised them to vote against Him. Bat three years ago, at the Grand Theatre, he had heard Mr Munro ear that nothing could be too extreme for Labor. Since then they had seen a great nation brought to its knees and had read the most horrible ‘tales with which the ears of men had been regaled. They might say that that was in Russia, and that they were in New Zealand, but -Mr Fraser had said in Palmerston North that the New Zealand Labor movement was part of a great world movement of which the Soviet system was a section. Jilr Holland, too, had stated in Parliament that he was a Bolshevik, would preach Bolshevism, and would defy Mr Massey to prevent him. They would see what it would mean to vote lor Mr Munro. Mr Gilchrist had said that the workers must have alterations which could not be obtained by the machine called Parliament. He had nothing against any man for holding his own opinions as to the way In which the country should bo governed; but this was a constitutional country, and the majority of the people were determined that any alteration should be brought about by the ballot. If there were men who did not like that, then let them leave New Zealand and go to Russia. Mr Griffith declared that the Labor Party had voted with Rome against the Protestant majority in connection with the No Temere decree, and that the Liberals, with a few exceptions, had done the same. He did not know a, man who was so well fitted to guide the destinies of New Zealand for the time being as Mir Massey. If it was a q uestion—and it was—between Mr Massey and Mr Holland there could be no comparison. The Liberals might be counted out. The responsibility was on the electors whether they were going to maintain the country under a safe and loyal Government or pass it over to such men as Mr Holland and his class. Stability;” responsibility, and equal rights for all were represented by Air J. J. dark, and he (the speaker)~was going to use his Influence for him.

Mr Griffith also referred to the candidature of Mr Gilchrist, the Labor aspirant for Dunedin Central. TJe was a man to whom, the speaker declared, he had spoken once, but " I soon found out what kind of a man Mr Gilchrist was, and my time is too valuable to waste on such as he. I have studied too long a book which tells me not to oast pearls before swine.” Later Mr Gilchrist, who chanced to be present, rose and asked Mr Griffith if he had seen him before. Mr Griffith said he bad not.

Mr Gilchrist t “Well, how could you have had the conversation you spoke of with me, for I am Mr Gilchrist? 5 ’ Mr Griffith: “Well, then, you are not the man I thought you were. 55 Mr Griffith remarked later that he very much regretted having misrepresented Mr Gilchrist, and that he'might have been mistaken even in the name.