MAY-DAY MADNESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19008, 4 May 1925, Page 8

MAY-DAY MADNESS.

Christchurch has gone "a-Maying" with a vengeance. Not all Christchurch, to be strictly fair ; nor even all who took part in the Trades Hall meeting now reported. Probably, many there would repudiate warmly the implied spokesmanship that used May Day as an occasion for a neurotic outburst against things given the normal man's reverence. Even Christchurch, which has often, in its kindly tolerance, been a happy hunting-ground for cranks, must feel abashed at this latest infliction on its patience. May Day, long observed in England as a time of simple and innocent frolic, with a full measure of rustic enjoyment in crowning the May Queen and dancing about the Maypole, has fallen on evil times. It has been dedicated to the worship of Communism. Instead of the harmless expression of a springtide glee, there is a fell Haunting of a revolutionary creed, the acclaiming of purposes far more reprehensible than ever the "stinckyng idols" of stern Puritan reprobation could ever be. New Zealand, even New Zealand Labour, has seen little of this strange employment of May Day. If the Christchurch celebration be a sample of the use to which some would put it, New Zealand will want to sec no more of their frenzy. The maniacal mouthings of Mr. J. H. G. Chappie deserve unqualified censure as an abuse of free speech. To describe Trades Unionism as a passage to Communism is grotesquely fal§e. To

attack the Judgo of the Arbitration Court as a biassed and conscienceless partisan is as scandalously insulting as it is recklessly untrue. To compare His Majesty the King to a weasel is shocking beyond words. All this was in execrable taste. It was worse than that. It was treasonably subversive of law and citizenfiliip. As soon as possible after the outbreak of war, Mr. Chappie found it convenient to leave New Zealand ; but, now that fear of wartime responsibilities is passed, he thinks it a country good enough to live in. But he still scorns the oath of allegiance and resumes his vitriolic attack upon the State. So, in the name of an allegedly social creed, ho preaches anti-social doctrine; presuming to expound Communism, he lauds anarchy ; he prefers class hatred to fraternity. This sort of propaganda is not merely a sorry spectacle, to bo ignored as a cause of shame: it is a challenge to the decencies of life, to be sternly rebuked. Against this pestilential misanthropy, the utterances of the first Labour Mayor of Christchurch arc reasonable and moderate. Mr. Archer anticipates an experience in the chair of the City Council akin to that of Daniel in the den of lions. He should know. He has been a councillor. On the memorable occasion when he met an argument for the ratepayers' point of view with his "Damn the ratepayers!" roared across the counciltable, he was a very ferocious and unmuzzled lion. But ho has the merit of feeling responsibility. The menace of men like Mr. Chappie is that they are hopelessly irresponsible. • ——