THE PRIME MINISTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22738, 26 November 1935, Page 12

THE PRIME MINISTER

A STRENUOUS CAMPAIGN TOUR VIRTUALLY COMPLETED (Special to Daily Times) CHRISTCHURCH, November 25. The Prime Minister (Mr Forbes) virtually ended his long campaign tour when he spoke at Kaiapoi to-night to one of the largest political meetings which has been held there for some years. He has one more engagement, a visit to the Rangiora sale yards to-morrow afternoon, before he leaves for Wellington, but that will be an informal affair, and actually he has completed a tour which was probably the most comprehensive and most successful of his long political career. It was expected that the Kaiapoi audience, representing largely a manufacturing centre, would give the Prime Minister n lively hearing. Certainly there were a good many interjections, but- it was from a small section of the audience, which did not seem to be very critical. It could not be called heckling by any means, and as Mr Forbes told the audience after he had received a hearty vote of thanks, that it had given him a very fair hearing, and he had no complaints, to make whatever. The vote was carried by acclamation by an audience of more than 500 electors. One interjection was typical of the most of the others and gave Mr Forbes an opportunity to score a good debating point. A man called out: What about the mortgagees who are getting nothing? "If we had not assisted the farmers the mortgagees would not even have their capital," Mr Forbes retorted. "There were 11,000 farmers who had adjustments made, and at the time they were facing bankruptcy. If they had been allowed to go bankrupt the country would have been threatened with wholesale disaster." "We do not want any Russians, Mussolinis, or any tiling eke like that," said the Prime Minister, when someone called out something about Russia. There was applause at the retort. •At Leeston, whert Mr Forbes gave an address in the afternoon, there were more than 250 present, and the Prime Minister was given an attentive, friendly hearing. He had a short debate with a Douglas Social Credit enthusiast, and apparently scored a very good point when, in reply to that man's interjections about the value of the New Zealand pound, he said: " It does not matter how much a pound is worth in France or Abyssinia: it is what it is worth in New Zealand that counts." Mr Forbes received a hearty vote of thanks. Before the meeting, Mrs Forbes, who has accompanied the Prime Minister everywhere on the tour, was presented with a bouquet.