The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1931. THE TOWN HALL AND HILLSIDE.

Evening Star, Issue 20959, 25 November 1931, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1931. THE TOWN HALL AND HILLSIDE.

By resolution, passed at a representative meeting of Hillside Railway Workshops employees yesterday, wo Lave been asked to withdraw and apologise for statements contained in an editorial in Saturday’s issue dealing ith Mr Forbes’s meeting on Friday night. Letters containing the same request have appeared from an executive councillor of the A.S.R.S. and the secretary of that society’s Hillside branch, rlso a letter from a Hillside employee demanding an individual apology on the ground that ho was not approached to attend the Town Hall meeting and did not attend. Assuming this lastnamed communication as liable to establish a precedent, and as we are perfectly aware that largo numbers of Hillside employees absented themselves fi’om the Town Hall, wo aro not prepared to undertake a task resembling white-washing on the grand scale. Wo are neither able nor willing to retract all that we have been asked to retract. In the first place a prior apology is duo from someone on behalf of many. That apology is due to the Prime Minister for the treatment given him according to plan. Meantime we 1. .Men to apologise to the numbers of men at Hillside ho would have nothing to do with a demonstration which in every respect was devoid of the fundamentals of fair-play and self-respect, let alone good manners and good citizenship. This apology of ours is duo chiefly because evidently the good name of the whole has been smirched by the behaviour (and the criticisms thereon) of a part. It need not have been so, and we did not intend that it should bo so. In proof of that we quote from the article complained of as follows:—“ But one may hazard the conjecture that the fair-minded, hard-working section of the very largo number of people in the State’s employ and pay in New .Zealand deplore the action of the noisy minority of their confreres.” In writing that we expressly, though not exclusively, had the Hillside Workshops employees in our mind. It is perhaps a pity we did not say so, in view of the prominence accorded to Hillside in the strictures, preceding and following the above extract, which wo felt constrained to make in the public interest. We are perfectly well aware that all branches of the Public Service were involved in some degree in an organised plan to demonstrate against Mr Forbes and belittle him in the public esteem, if not actually intimidate him. The following circular had wide distribution beforehand:— Political Meeting. Town Hall, Friday, 20th, 8 p.m. Address by Hon. Geo. W. Forbes. Civil servants are enjoined to attend the above meeting and to congregate en bloc in the upper gallery as soon as possible after 7.30 p.m. If you cannot attend the meeting, see that your co-workers attend.

On Friday morning it was well known to a number of people outside the Civil Service that Mr Forbes, in popular parlance, was to bo given a rough spin that night. By midday, at latest, it was also perfectly well known to himself and his entourage. With those anticipations, unfortunately only too fully realised, the name of Hillside was invariably coupled. Probably one reason was that Hillside Workshops contain far more Government employees than any other individual Government premises in Dunedin, and were therefore regarded as a natural focus for a combined or organised Public Service protest. There cannot be the slightest doubt that other elements of dissatisfaction joined themselves to the Public Service movement. For example—at the risk of giving further offence where it may bo undeserved—a number of single men from the Deep Stream relief works “ bitched their wagons to a star,” and there were other unemployed, and there were avowed Communists. The obvious lesson is that, immediately one adopts methods which, if not unconstitutional, are at least provocative of riot (as was shown this week at Christchurch) one speedily finds oneself in very queer and embarrassing company.

We have at command a great many letters from correspondents endorsing the statement that some Hillside Workshops employees were fairly actively concerned in Friday night’s obviously organised disturbance. But as our readers have had the opportunity of perusing most of them, we shall go no further than allude to the Labour Party’s disclaimer in our Saturday’s issue, wherein it was stated that the demonstration “ was duo rather to the fact that a large body of those present at the meeting were suffering sorely as a result of the economy legislation for which Mr Forbes’s Government was responsible.” That very many railway employees deplore the odium which a small section of their confreres have thoughtlessly incurred on their behalf is incontestable. One of them, as spokesman for others likeminded with himself, has put the case with force and clarity in a letter appearing in our contemporary’s issue today, entitled ‘ The Town Hall Melee,’ and signed “ Railway Employee.”