NEW ZEALANDER'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 31 December 1924, Page 5

NEW ZEALANDER'S ELECTION CAMPAIGN

“THE STRIKE BREAKER”

At the begining of,Mr F. M. B. Fisher’s election campaign at Ncwcastle-on-Tyne, writes the Post’s London correspondent under date 13th November, iffe was subjected to such persistent interruptions that for a day or two he w§# not. heard by his audience. Then . tip voluntary* British Fascist! took a hand and quickly reduced his meeting's J;p order. On one occasion, a nurse in uniform became so incensed with a man who was continually interrupting ihat sho smacked his face. This brought another woman in".o the argument, whereupon the nurse smacked her iace, t-00. and threatened to repeat tho medicine. if she considered it. necessary. There was comparative quietness in that part of tho hall for a while aftei. M

A piece of road stone with jagged -edges which was hurled through the open window of tho candidate’s car and narrowly missed the occupants is af trilphy of Mr Fisher’s adventurous passage in one of the Labour strongholds. After relating this story, the Newcastle Daily Journal adds: "How his opponents must fear this frank, upstanding, s«nny-eyed standard-bearer of the Conservative Partv.”

The Labour candidate, Mr Trevelyan (who proved successful again) seems to have gono to the trouble of cabling to New Zealand for opinions regarding hia opponent. At one of his meetings Trevelyan said: “My pockets are bulging with telegrams from the Labour Party and trade unions in New Zealand.” He read the following: “Rainbow Fisher. Greatest enemy New-Zea-land seamen ever had. Warrants’ unqualified defeat at Parliamentary election. Young, general secretary, Seamen's Federation.”

Mr Trevelyan went on to explain, that while Mr Fisher was Home Secretary iu 1913 ho organised a special constabur lary to break a strike,’ suspending the’, safety regulations on the ships in ordiftr to allow them to he worked by unskilled labour. “Is be repentant?” asked the Labour candidate. “No.” “And why not a rainbow,” said .Mr Fisher, in one of his speeches. ’'A rainbow is a thing of beauty and a ]oy forever, and there never was a rainbow without. ■ sunshine.” As for being ,a strike breaker, he would do his beat’not merely to break a strike, but to bverik the. necks of the originators of it, if -it was organised against the instructions of the men’s leaders by a minority whp wanted to hold up the food of the people and who were acting in concept with a foreign agency. As for Mr Young, Mr Fisher added: “He is not an impartial judge, since he opposed me in Wellington! Central, and was so far down that be had to forfeit his deposit. Mr Trevelyan iff dependent upon. tne discards of the electors in a, mod&fn democracy like New Zealand.” ' „A.