The Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1911. THE RIGHT OF PUBLIC MEETING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10302, 6 November 1911, Page 2

The Star. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1911. THE RIGHT OF PUBLIC MEETING.

Tho disturbances that, occurred in I Cathedral Square on Saturday night ! and in Victoria Square l/i3fc night suggest that there) is a hooligan element in the city -which has made up its mind to prevent the holding of orderly meetings in the open air during the present campaign on the licensing issue. Tt seems to us that when any body of citizens arranges a meeting to bo held in a proper place the fact that tho meeting is not in a hall should not be regarded as justifying rowdyism. Tho matter is really one for the attention of the police authorities. If an examplo wero made of one or two persistent interrupters we should liea r nothing more of such disturbances. Whatever may have been tho cause of the trouble in Cathedral Square—and we havo our own opinion on thart point—there was no possible excuse for the behaviour of the persons who took charge of the meeting in Victoria Square last evening. These men, a good many of whom were young fellows indulging in idle Inrrikinism, had no desire to hear what the Rev R. S. Gnay had to say, and their sole desire appeared to l>e to prevent other people from hearing. At frequent intervals they chanted in unison, "Wo want Pothorick." Obviously, if they" wanted, to hear Mr Petherick they could have adjourned in an orderly fashion to some other place and listened to him. Thefv would have just tho same right to hojld a meeting of their own in peace as tfee prohibitionists had, but the truth of tho matter is that they did not warit to hear Mr Petherick; what thoy 'Wanted was to prevent Mr Gray from being heard, and as 90 per cent of the crowd were there to hear Mr Gray it is clear that the interrupters were flagrantly in the wrong. We are not goin|/r to waste words condemning the tunics of the disturbers. Methods of the kind they adopted are not going to do the prohibitionist cause auy liarm or the. cause of the Trade any good, because dixent citizens who are not prohibitionists will simply be disgusted by the hooliganism of those who declare loudly tjbjat they a,ro "fighting Tor liberty," ara&j'will naturally be prejudiced against) 'the cause which the interrupters arb supposed to be espousing. If tfyire are any responsible people who havte sufficient influence to restrain the rowdy element we commend this aspect of tjho business to their attention. Tho police, we know, are unwilling to intfetffere with tho acknowledged right of interjection at public meetings and naturally allow both speakers and aiudience all possible latitude. But wha/t happened on Saturday and Sunday nights was far beyond the bounds of legitimate interjection, and unless tho rowdy tendency is promptly checked it will degenerate into rioting and the holding of open air meetings in the city will ha*-e to be prohibited. This may be the end that the disturbers havo in view, but ndw that the attention of tho police authorities has been called to tlie position we hope that steps will he taken to scpiro to all citizens the enjoyment of tiheir undoubted right of public meeting*.