OPPOSITION PROPAGANDISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15560, 18 March 1914, Page 6

OPPOSITION PROPAGANDISTS.

The visit of four Opposition members of Parliament to the North of Auckland on a. political mission will serve to quicken interest in the coming election campaign. There is no reason to suppose that Messrs. W. D. S. Mac Donald, T. E. Y. Seddon, J. C. Thomson, and G. Witty have any authority to enunciate a policy, but they might at all events say what they think the policy ought to be, and they would find plenty of precedents in the recent history of their party for anticipating their leader, , Of one thing the touring members may be fairly certain: they will receive a courteous hearing from their opponents. North of Auckland audiences are unlikely to repeat the methods of the Social-Democrats who refused Mr. Fisher a hearing in Wellington, or to encourage such an exhibition as that which followed the Prime Minister's address at Nelson. According to the rules governing public meetings, Mr. Atmore had a right to move an amendment to a motion of confidence in Mr. Massey, but the unwritten law governing the conduct of a member of Parliament should have kept him silent. It is against all precedent foe a member of Parliament to interfere in a meeting addressed by . another member, and it is a special offence against the canons of good taste to interfere when the other member happens to be the Prime Minister. The North of Auckland is unlikely to reproduce the untoward incidents of Wellington and Nelson.