STANDING ALONE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 509, 12 November 1928, Page 7

STANDING ALONE

MRS. PATERSON AT BAY “t in here to stand up for what I think is right, and I don't care if 1 do six months in the cooler for it," Mrs. L. Paterson, Independent Labour candidate for Grey Lynn, told about 80 people gathered at Page’s Corner on Saturday evening. Though there was a barrage of interruptions, she stood at bay, and gave as heartily as she was given for three-quarters of an hour. The candidate explained that her platform was the same as that of the Labour man, but she thought it was about time that the working women were represented in Parliament. Women had had the franchise for 35 years, and yet there was no woman in the House. Ten women members would make a great difference to the country. Who would say that women were not good financiers? A Voice: You’re marvels! Sir Joseph couldn’t run his house on £4 10s a week. “I have worked for Labour and for Mr. Bar tram, and now I w’ant a fair deal,” she said. “I am standing alone, with no committeee. and I am spending my own money. This is not for a joke. The working women should be represented in Parliament. A Woman: Why don’t you get your photo in the papers? A Man: This isn’t a beauty competition. Another Alan: You’re too honest, mother; they won’t put you in a den of thieves. When she was allowed to answer, Mrs. Paterson said that her photograph had appeared in The Sun, but she had not received the publicity given to other candidates.

She attacked the immigration policy, and then was asked what she would do to prevent unemployment. She proposed to establish “secondary industries,” which she said were killed by the importers, and to put people on lands which were at present unoccupied. She declared that she was of Welsh blood, “Lloyd George breed.” and also an "Aussie,” so that she was out to fight. She admitted that she was not a member of the Labour Party. She had not joined, because it seemed that more should be done than "passing resolutions in the Trades Hall.” Wars and military training were denounced by her as hypocrisy in a Christian country. People could not carry a Bible in one hand and a bayonet in the other without being hypocrites. Children ought to be taught the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments at their mother’s knee, but she was against sectarian teaching in the schools. There was a round of applause at the close. Mr. C. Campbell presided. PROHIBITION POISON DEATHS IN NEW YORK SELLERS TO BE CHARGED WITH HOMICIDE (From “The Times” Correspondent, New York. October 9. 1925.) Alarmed by the unusually x large number of deaths in the city from poisonous liquor over the week-end—--33 liad been recorded up to midnight yesterday—the police last night raided 21 alleged "speakeasies” (liquor parlours) in the lower east side of New York, and arrested the proprietors or bar tenders. Samples of the liquor sold in these places were sent to the city toxicologist. In every case where one of these samples is found to contain poison the proprietor of the place where it was seized will be charged with homicide. Dr. Norris, Chief Medical Examiner of the city, said that of the 11 autopsies thus far made on those found dead from alcoholism, all showed that the victims had drunk undiluted alcohol. Dr. Gettler, the City Toxicologist, Held the Federal Government to blame, because of its policy in poisoning commercial alcohol to make it unfit for drinking. Ordinary commercial alcohol, he said. is now treated with poisons, and when it is redistilled for beverage purposes by bootleggers and others, it is never wholly freed from the poisons put into it. Up to September 1 there were 518 known deaths from alcoholism in the city in 1926. and in 1927 there were 719. These figures compare with 87 in 1918, 95 in 1919, and 84 in 1920 the year in which the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act came into effect. Such is the toll Prohibition takes. Keep it out by voting for Continuance. Advt.