THE HUSTNGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 510, 13 November 1928, Page 9

THE HUSTNGS

"Mr. Coates is running about saying: ‘Coates will win! Coates will win!' Mr. Donald is distributing leaflets saying: 'Donald will win! Donald will win! Donald will win!’ Lee is going round telling you why you should vote tor him, and presenting you with a platform,” said Mr. J. A. Lee, Labour, at Grafton Hall, last evening. Mr. Lee said that autosuggestion got people into trouble. * * * REFORM'S INAUGURATIONS. "If it had not been for Mr. Veitch, now so prominently associated with the United Party, having ‘ratted,” and put Sir Joseph Ward out, we would not have had the years of vicious legislation of the Reform Party which has been a curse to the country.” Mr. J. A. Lee, Labour. * * 9 “Are you in favour of the salaries of members of Parliament being reduced 50 per cent, until unemployment is relieved?” a questioner asked Mr. H. R. Jenkins, United Party candidate, at St. Mark’s Hall, Remuera. last evening. "Yes, heartily,” replied Mr. Jenkins. OYER THE BRIDGE “If the two anti-Labour candidates for Waitemata think they can walk into Parliament over the Waitemata Bridge, they will fall in.”—Mrs. Bosworth, at the Labour rally in Devonport last night. * * * MARBLES! “Mr. Fletcher, in his pamphlet, tells you he has played Soccer and cricket, and now plays bowls. Well. I've played marbles in my day, but I haven’t advanced that as a reason for getting support into Parliament.”—Mr. Bartram, Labour candidate for Grey Lynn. • * * BOYS CHASE RABBITS The Reform candidate for Franklin, Mr. J. N. Massey, speaking at Paerata, said he considered that such institutions as the Wesley College at Paerata should be exempt from rates on buildings and about 40 acres. A Voice: What are they doing there? Chasing rabbits Mr. Massey: Who, the college boys? You must give them a certain amount of pleasure. (Applause.) The Interjector: Yes, and they can go like greyhounds. too. (Loud laughter.) • » * v NATURALISED OR MESMERISED? It was at Mr. J. N. Massy’s meeting at Paerata that a persistent interjector maintained a running fire of questions, the majority of which were inaudiable to both candidate and audience. Mr. Massey: How long have vou been in New Zealand? The Interjector: Arv been ’ere joost 10 years, and ’aam naturalised. A Voice: He should have been mesmerised. (Loud laughter.) The retort courteous crushed the heckler, who remained silent for the remainder of the evening. * * * MAKING THEM GOOD I know of nothing better to turn a man from a Bolshevik into a decent citizen than to give him the freehold of a section.—Mr. Allen Bell, Bay of Islands. • » • THE NEW MUSSOLINI From 1922 to 1925 when I was the member who kept Ihe Government in office, I was the dictator, and I did not take advantage of the position. Now the Ministers have confidence in what I say when I make requests for my district. —Mr. Allen Bell. Bay of Islands. » * * “It is pathetic but none the less appropriate to see that Mr. Coates, after speaking in picture theatres and motor garages, should finish up at Avondale,” —Mr. G. C. Munns. CAUSTTC COMMENT } “I would vote with any party to get rid of this miserable, wretched, supine, effete Government of ours, but 1 would not vote to make Harry Holland Prime Minister.”—Mr. G. C. Munns. LABOUR MEN BOUND * Members of the Labour Party are not free agents. This is the main objection of Mr. John S. Fletcher, United candidate for Grey Lynn. "That is what I have against the Labour Party mostly,” he said at a meeting at Kingsland last evening. “Labour members are tied to the Labour Council. The only logical position for a candidate is to be bound by pledges to the people of his electorate.” HAND OF FRIENDSHIP When a vote of thanks was put to the audience at Mr. P. B. Fitzherbert’s meeting at Grey Lynn last evening, a skirted interjector who had been prominent throughout the meeting screamed: “No.” For a moment the candidate stood still, and then moved down among the audience and shook the emphatic dissentient by the band. WHERE THE CHICKEN GOT IT From the platform of Mr. A. Harris, Independent Reformer in Waitemata, the administration of the Reform Government sounded the acme of political perfection. But several sceptics at the back were not convinced and expressed their doubts. “If you return the Reform Party on Wednesday,” Mr. Harris said, “you will get ” “it in the neck,” finished off a member of the doubtful band at the back. WAGES AND RENTS Immigrants who were pftpared to Pay their own passage and who had a little money should not be stopped from coming to New Zealand, said Mr. J. B. Donald last evening. On the other hand. assisted immigrants should not be brought to the country while unemployment existed. THE BORROWERS “I venture to say that if Mr. Coates and his party goes back, they won’t

borrow only £70,000,000, but twice £70.000.000.”—Mr. J. B. Donald. AS HE SAW THEM. "Babblers, amateurs, experimenters, : imitators—wildest of the wild ideal- . ists whose methods are not always above suspicion.”—This summing-up of the Labour Party was made last evening by Dr. W. H. Horton, chairman of Mr. J. B. Donald’s meeting in St. Sepulchre’s Hall last evening. * WOWSERS “It is only within the past few months I have discovered I am a ‘wowser.’ Well, if I am a ‘wowser,’ X say, ‘God bles3 the wowsers.’ ’’---Mr. Frank Adeane at Ponsonby last evening. * i TEMPUS FUGIT Mr. Gordon Coates was half an hour late in arriving at Mr. Adeane’s meeting at the West End Theatre last evening, and Mr. Adeane was passing the time by answering questions. A serious gentleman at the back of the hall rose and asked, “Will the candidate give us his word of honour that he will, if returned to Parliament, urge upon the Prime Minister, the necessity of keeping his appointments punctually.” • « * ROUNDING THE CORNER Replying to a query as to whether the Government had turned the corner yet, Mr. Frank Adeane said, "You know some corners are sharp and some are long. Well, about three years ago, we struck one of those bad corners, but now we are just about around into the straight.” * * * ANTIDUMPING “Yes. I am strongly in favour of an anti-dumping duty,” declared Mr. Frank Adeane at Ponsonby last evening. “Well, put it on the immigrant,” yelled a man at the back. * * * SUCH IS FAME ’ “Is there another question?” asked Mr. A. E. Greenslade, Mayor of Northcote, chairman at a political meeting across the harbour last evening. There was. “How did you win that beauty contest at Birkenhead?” asked a voice. •* . * CHANGE OF MEDICINE “What we want is a change of medicine.” declared Mr. H. K. Clayton, who took the chair at Mr. H. R. Jenkins’s meeting last evening, at St. Mark’s Hall, Remuera. “Sometimes we may have a bald patch on the head or a corn on the foot—the Reform Government has been giving the same medicine for both complaints. It’s time we called our own tune.” * * * BAD BREAK One interjector made a bad break at Mrs. Maguire’s meeting last night when the candidate had been talking about Mussolini and his management of affairs in Italy. A Voice: You can’t compare Russia with New Zealand. After mildly denying that she had any such object in view Mrs. Maguire said slyly: “I believe there is another deaf person here.” Another Voice: Would you advance Mussolini tactics here?—No I don’t think they would do here.” STEALING HIS THUNDER A charge that opponents had been stealing hjs thunder was made by Mr. F. Lysnar (Reform) speaking to a City Central audience last evening. “Since I spoke first the other candidates have followed me. I am the only one to put feasible schemes before you,” he said. * • •• REFERENCES REQUIRED A picture of the beautiful island of Roto Roa was painted by Mrs Maguire last evening and she also talked of the advantages of the Borstal Institutes. A Voice: But you need a very good recommendation to get there, don’t you? Mrs. Maguire: Rather. HACKNEYEb * * At the fourth reference to “nine bob a day” by interjeotors at Mrs. Maguire’s meeting last evening the chairman got up. “This is too hackneyed,” said he. “The next man or woman who talks about it will be silenced and I’m prepared to do it.” The threat was received in silence and there was no more mention of the offending amount. THE COMMERCE*TRAIN The business men who made the trip in the commerce train round the North Island were commended as “live wires” by Mrs. Maguire last evening. “We shall hear something more about that trip before very long,” she prophesied. A Voice (dolorously): Yes, I’m afraid we shall. > PREFERS LABOUR’S POLICY “As far as the Labour Party Is concerned its policy is much more constructive than that of the United Party. Labour certainly has a definite policy, and there is far more satisfaction in opposing it than the United Party, which deals only with generalities.” —Sir James Gunson at Birkenhead. * * * The chairman of Mr. Stallworthy’s . meeting at Mount Eden last night, Mr. T. T. Garland delivered himself of the following election aphorisms amid the 1 chuckles of a delighted audience: ‘ “Find out all he knows, and all he doesn’t know.” “Every candidate has good intentions, whether mistaken or otherwise.” “Use a grain of salt occasionally— 1 some of them would promise you the 1 whole world if you’d let them give it.” 1 “Defending the imposition of roughly ’ 2d on every loaf to protect the South i Island wheat-growers, as a vote-catch- i ing measure, Mr. Coates said that a ! loaf of bread in New Zealand cost the same as It did in Ottawa. But he ' didn’t say_that the Ottawa loaf is ; twice as big.”—Mr. A. J. Stallworthy 1 at Mount Eden last night. :