LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 89, 15 December 1913, Page 5

LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

A MINISTER AT WOOL3TON.

[Pee Press Association.] Christcllurch, December 12

The Hon. F. M. B. Fisher addressed a noisy meeting at Woolston last night, in support of the candidature of Mi J. Miller in the second ballot of the Lyttelton seat.

In the midst of a constant hurricane of interjections, Mr Fisher said that he proposed to speak of the actions of the present Administration with regard to the eixting industrial trouble. The workers themselves complained of monopolies, yet the Federation of Labor was controlled by seven men not elected by the public. On October 28 a proposal was made that the matter in dispute should be referred to an arbitrator, but the Federation of Labor turned it down, its explanation being that such a proposal could not be accepted without reference to the other unions. That being so, where did the Federation get the power to strike without reference to other unions? After prolonged interruptions, Mr Fisher said it was a new feature in politics in this country when a certain section of public opinion could say that no public man should have the right i" speak except in their behalf. While he, a New Zealander, was prevented from speaking, a naturalised American could* get a good hearing. .Mr Fisher offered to let anybody come on to the platform and speak alternately with him. The offer was not accepted, > Continuing, Mr Fisher said that if the watersides had struck on a matter of wages the strike would have been over in a few days, for the conditions of work on the waterside would have been turned inside out. He detailed the present conditions under which many men were kept waiting for work, and said that the Government convened a conference to prepare a scheme which would ultimately secure permanent employment to the whole of the waterside laborers.

Tn reply to a question regarding the repeal of the second hallot, Mr Fisher said that the reason why it was repealed was because in his opinion there was no other statute yet' devised that went so far to rouse ill-feeling, malice, and vindietivoness. The Government did away with it because if a Government was to he put in power that was going to allow the whole of thp State to bo paralysed hy a portion of the community, that Government was not lit to represent the people.