DUNEDIN CENTRAL ELECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16293, 28 January 1915, Page 7

DUNEDIN CENTRAL ELECTION

MR MUNRO AT RUSSELL STREET. Mr J. W. Munro, the Liberal-Labour candidate for Dunedin Central, addressed an audiencc of 150 electors at the Russell Stieet Mission Hall last night, Mr J. Olliver presiding. The candidate received an excellent hearing. In reply to the statement made by Mr Statham that he had made wild, rash statements that he was totally unable to substantiate, and was guilty of the most glaring misrepresentations and inaccuracies, and also in reply to the question asked by Mr Statham why ho (Mr Munro) did not give a trenchant criticism of the finances of the dominion and deal with some of the great questions of the day in a statesmanlike manner, his only attempt at figures being his reference to the public debt and to the taxation per head, in which ho was grossly inaccurate and misleading, the candidate said that any figures that he had quoted had been taken from the Government statistics, and if they were misleading and inaccurate, then tho Government was responsible for them. This was what Mr Statham called wild assertions and inaccuracies.

A question put to the candidate was whether he was a member of the Master Bakers' Association. The candidate answered in tho affirmative, and advised tho questioner to ask Mr Statham if he was a member of tho Law Society.—(daughter and applause.) Another question asked the candidate was if he was a Red Fed. within the meaning put forward by Mr Statham—viz., that at tho Princess Theatre on Tuesday evening he said that a Rod Fed was a revolutionary Socialist who believed in direct action by means of strikes. Mr Munro replied as follows:—"No. I am not. This is the fourth time I have appeared as a parliamentary candidate, which clearly proves that I believe in constitutional methods of adjusting the wrongs of the masses." The usual vote of sympathy in the candidate. coupled with an expression of the hope that ho would again be successful at the poll, concluded an enthusiastic meeting.