Mr Lockington Scores In Noisy Political Meeting At Greymouth

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 November 1947, Page 2

Mr Lockington Scores In Noisy Political Meeting At Greymouth

Brief periods of uproar marked the final half-hour of the meeting held in the Regent Theatre, Greymouth, last night by the National Party candidate for the Westland by-election, Mr J. F. Lockington. Jeers, applause and “ counting-out ” were at times mixed with the voices of questioners and the candidate, and it appeared on several occasions that the situation might get out of hand.

Remarkably enough, for a political meeting, the candidate stood largely aloof from this “wrestling match” atmosphere. The audience, as a whole, took strong exception, not to Mr Lockington, or his remarks, but to a small section of about half a dozen persistent questioners whose remarks indicated that- they at least were sympathetic to the Communists, who had been strongly attacked by the speaker.

Every time one of this small section got to his feet, it was a signal for a roar of disapproval from the crowd of almost 700 in the theatre and in almost every instance the candidate’s replies (when actual questions were framed) produced equally clamorous applause.

This hostile reception to a certain type of question, which was invariably preceded by a long preamble, reached a climax when the most persistent questioner, Mr R. Moth, attempted to move an amendment to the vote of thanks and confidence accorded the candidate. Mr Moth was not permitted to put forward his amendment (seconded before it was actually framed by another persistent questioner), but was “counted out” by a considerable section of the audience.

Large Attendance In contrast to question-time, the first portion of the meeting was singularly orderly for such a large public gathering (one of the biggest on record for a local candidate’s address) . For over an hour and a-quar-ter Mr Lockington forcibly put forward his political ideas, with only about half a dozen interjections which were statements rather than questions and were ignored by the candidate.

One man who persisted in making suggestions that the candidate “should work in the Strongman mine” annoyed a section of the audience and he was told by them to “shut up.” Although there were relatively few interjections, Mr Lockington’s remarks were frequently punctuated by applause, which reached the stage of a demonstration of enthusiasm when he made his principal points in regard to the menace of Communism in New Zealand, providing a foretaste of what was to come later when an attempt was made to have the. candidate further elaborate on his views on this subject.

From an applause point of view, the highlight of the meeting was reached when Mr Lockington told Mr Moth that he had heard a lot about Russia from army friends, and one had told him that the greatest day in his life was when he awoke on board a ship to find that he was 24 hours outside t of Odessa, after beihg threatened with :a firing squad in Russia for not having an identification card, when he had escaped into that country.

Mr Moth had asked the candidate to outline the Socialist and Communist philosophies. The candidate again “scored a hit with his audience when he was asked by one of the persistent questioners to prove that the “Socialist” was synonymous with “Communist. ’ Mr Lockington replied: “Stalin always refers to his country as a Socialist State and to Socialism as the first step to Communism. We have it in this country today. We see it m our papers every day that leaders of the people in the European countries which have come under Communist domination have had to flee for their lives to the sanctuary of Britain and the United States, but, please God, we will' oust them from this country!” Remarks, apparently as a preliminary to questions, by Mr Moth and two other persistent questioners were several times drowned in uproar, and the chairman of the meeting, the Mavor, Mr F. A. Kitchingham, had to appeal for order and remind the audience and the questioners that he had invited questions on behalf of the candidate, and not speeches from the questioners. . Audience Took Charge This was the situation when one man tried to ask Mr Lockington if he was aware that the same slogans as he had used had been used 100 years ago. The answer was taken out of the hands of the candidate by the crowd, which roared disapproval of the manner in which the question was put. This same questioner provided a laugh when he objected to being addressed as “Comrade” by Mr Kitchingham. “Pardon me, I am not comrade’—l am a citizen” was his rejoinder. “How can you reconcile your statement that there is liaison between the Communist and Labour parties with the fact that the Communist Party had three candidates at the last election?” asked one of the persistent questioners. The candidate said he thought the questioner would agree that he had already said that Trades Hall ran the country and the Trades Hall today was dominated by Communists. Referring to the fact that Mr Lockington had several times referred to New Zealand as “his country,” Mr Moth asked him to state why he considered it his country, more than the questioner’s.

“J look upon the whole country as mine,” replied the candidate. “The system that our pioneers left behind is well worth preserving—it has stood us in good stead for 100 years. If some people want to go to another country and another system, then they can go. Under the system you seem inclined to favour, we would even be deprived of that freedom. (Applause). “Are you aware that all Trades Council elections are democratic, asked another questioner, but the candidate was not given an opportunity to give his reply, _ cries oi “That’ll be the day,” and similar remarks from the audience drowning efforts to carry the matter further. There was more along _ the same lines from the same persistent Questioners, and cries of dissent from the audience, but the candidate was un-

perturbed. The chairman frequently had to appeal for order. Questions on matters of the candidate’s policy were given a much more attentive hearing. Reducing Taxation Mr J. Rodden was the first questioner, and he asked the candidate what avenues he would explore to reduce taxation. There were many, said<Mr Lockington, and one was to cut down, the huge Government service expenditure and put some of the employees into productive work. Another was to cut down some of the overseas tours by Government members. “In other words, you would favour ‘sackings’ in the Public Service?” asked Mr Rodden. The candidate replied “no,” and said that he was in favour of the Public Service as a whole and was not referring' to essential departments at all, but added that he considered that some members of other new departments could be put into productive avenues. This produced another question from a different part of the hall: “In fact, you favour direction of labour?” “No,” replied the candidate, who added that it was necessary only to see what he had seen recently in a Government department in Wellington to realise what he meant — people walking round doing nothing. “And no one is happy doing nothing,” he commented. Native Lease Question

Mr A. A. Shannon asked what was the candidate’s attitude towards the Maori leaseholds in Greymouth, where the lessees were “being robbed of their values.” “The Land Sales Court, as I see it,” replied Mr Lockington, “was set up to stabilise prices at the 1942 level, not to go beyond that date and clip them. I considei' that the court had no right to interfere with the prices ruling in 1942 and that the people who held the leases then are entitled to their improvements.” A frequent interjector, Mr W. O’Leary, asked whether, in view of his remarks in favour of private enterprise, .he would be in favour of selling the State mines to private enterprise. The candidate replied that he had always felt that private enterprise did a better job than the State. “We don’t know the actual cost of production in the State mines,” added the candidate, “but we do know that subsidies have cost £728,000. The bulk has gone in wages and yet production is going down and down. I know of one instance in Reefton where a mine was formerly staffed by a manager and a clerk, who also worked on the bins. Now it has a superintendent, mine manager, mine surveyor and three clerks, but production is down by two-thirds.” Replying to a further question on the same subject, Mr Lockington said that he would be in favour of all miners voting on the question, in a referendum. Asked whether he thought . the farmers would stand for the abolition of the guaranteed price, Mr Lockington said there were arguments for and against, but he would leave it to the farmers themselves to decide, and let them have a referendum. Vote of the People

Asked what his policy was in regard to assistance being given to private schools, Mr Lockington said he did not know whether the questioner was aware that Australia and New Zealand were the only parts of the British Empire which did not give them assistance. However, there were arguments for and against. In fact, some classes of schools did not want assistance. Again, he was in favour of an impartial inquiry and a vote of the people. There was no indication, at the end of half an hour, that several of the persistent questioners had had enough, but the chairman ruled that there had been sufficient opportunity given them. Moving a vote of thanks to the candidate for his “interesting and able” address, Mr A. Ross said that Mr Lockington had “stood up to a certain amount of Communistic abuse.”

The motion was seconded by Mr T. E. Coates and, after Mr Moth’s attempt to move an amendment had been howled down, was carried byacclamation.