MR. MASSEY’S MEETING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16904, 1 December 1922, Page 9

MR. MASSEY’S MEETING.

A Night of Interjections. C ommotion in Theatre and Pandemonium Outside. Mr. Massey’s meeting in the Theatre Royal last night was conducted in the ever-present prospect that the thousands outside would break into the building and put an end to the speech, as had been the case at previous Reform rallies in Christchurch. Fortunately, the gates and doors were held against invasion. Although there was a great deal of good humour in the crowd, the position looked ugly from time to time. Mr. Massey’s meeting lasted for two hours, and was marked by Constant interjections to which Mr. Massey paid so much attention that the meeting became almost an argument. There was no effort to gag the Premier, but the meeting was lively from start to finish, except towards ten o’clock, when a good many persons started to leave.

Packed long before 6.30 p.m.. the in- I side of the Theatre Royal xva» strange- ] I' peaceful compared with the surging • mass that fought outside in the hope i f gaining admittance. Reporters had , to tight their way into the building, j ,»n»i if it had been left to the Reform organisation to get them in thev would * ,>t;il be outside. Paper darts formed a relaxation for : tr.t* crowd indoors. Using up the ,pro- j prandial. pamphlets freely distributed , though the theatre, the ** gods ’* rain- ! . 1 a shower of darts on the “ bald , !icads " and others in the front row Shouts of laughter saluted every good | shot. Somebody found that an opened ; newspaper would perform i gliding tricks ns it turned lazily over ! •and over. After that, well-rogd pages ; of the evening papers floated lazily i down. Once a miniature glider just had * impetus enough to glide gracefully on to the stage to n hoarse cheering accompaniment. but several other shots reached the curtain. It was a little before 8 o’clock that the curtain rose on a packed stage, with Mr Massey and Mr H. I>. Aoland in the centre of the stage. There arose a great storm of hooting and cheering which lasted for minutes. It looked for a while as if the old slogan •* Mavey shall not speak to-night ” nu, to be put. into effect. but the storm subsided. “ Go home.” said a voice when Mr Acland stood up lor a "few introductory words, which were torn by the .-hot and shell of rapid fire interjection. ■ Where’s the Doc?” said a voice. An ocean of boohooing broken by clapping, again greeted the Prime Minister when he rose to face the audience. .Just a word to my fHernia who are inclined to be noisy.’’ said the Premier. “Tt won’t affect me in the very slightest.” (Great applause). “ Tt may prevent that part of the audience who came to hear me from hearing as they expected, hut that The Premier panned to let the applause subside. . “ Anything in the wav of obstructing the meeting or preventing the speaker from being heard is most cowardly and contemptible— Oteans of applause drowned the period. •• I want to thank you for the hearty reception you have given me—” the speaker began. Ironical barren laughter greeted hi 3 thanks. Nothing pleases me better than to address an audience in which every seat is full ” he said. A voice: Where’s Thacker. A i‘other voice: What about some politics. Rill? 'l ou will get more than you want in the way of politics before I sit down ” said the Premier. The voice: Wo have had more than enough of your politics. •• And we have had more than enough of your impertinence ” said die Prim' Minister. A voice: Go on Bill, on with the dance. There was a pause for breath on both sides. Mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen. I am* here to talk politics ” began the Prejnier. “ and anything is 1/otter than apathy, as there is nothing so bad for a country when an election is approaching. I don't expect a political meeting to be as quiet as a church meeting, but I do expect a Christchurch audience to behave themselves decently.” Hoarse cheers and roars, and deep echoes of roaring and cheering outside. • • The war in which New Zealand took no unimportant part—” t.ho Premier began. A voice: Yes, the workers fought it. “I always notice.” retorted the Premier,” that the people who shout the loudest are the, people who did little or nothing in the crisis through which we passed-” A voice : You are shouting pretty loud to-night, Bill. “ You will shout yourself out.” said Mr Massey, who was visibly annoyed by this particular interjjector, who shot his words out clearly from a corner in the gods close to the stage. “Personally,” he added, “I would sooner no one was turned out, but there is another way with a person like my friend, when he is informed that he will have to appear before the beak in the* morning. When he hears that, it will cost him a line of £5 for his night’s amusement his courage fails. I have seen that type before. I know them.” “When we sent 100,000 men to the war we didn’t send them lor nothing,” lie continued. “Who’s we. Bill?” said a voire. When we called for men." unued, “ 14,000 men put their names down, but there were none of this noisy mob among them.’ Far too much attention was being paid by the speaker to the interjertors. He bandied words with all parts of the theatre, but ib was decidedly novel to see him speaking in Ofirmtchurch. One man he licensed of be j*g u arise prophet To another ho suit! “ If that foreign gentleman "'ill / bring an interpreter we will be able u, understand what he says.”

“ What did Mr Wilford *ay about you?” asked a questioner. “ I core ho more about what Mr Wilford says than about what you ; say.” he replied, “and that is not very ! much.” A voice: Ho is a better man than Another voice : It is no use talking to you. Loud groans and laughter .greeted an essay to quote scripture. Tt was ft bewhiskered old quotation about 'the laughter of fools.” The late T. 15. Taylor used it first, in 1902. A temporary diversion was provided in the press enclosure when a young reporter fell backwards as his chair : slipped over the edge of’ a ledge. He j was recovered safely. Finance remained the burden of Mr Massey’s lay and ho emphasised that. ’ when increases were demanded from the big man he simply passed it on. A voice : You will pass it on on the j seventh (laughter). ‘' The wish is father to the thought,” said the Premier. “You will pass out before 1 do.” <l The people of the country know I am going to be here for a very long time to come,” he said, "and that; is for the electors to say, and not for this noisy handful ot half grown boys who are making a noise.” “ Then there is the trouble of tm- \ employment.” Mr Massey said, turning to a new note. “ You kzrc.w some- j thing of that last winter.” Too right,” said a voice. ‘‘ And now. too,” said another. ! *’ Not now.” said AH' Massey, *' only < tor those who are not prepared. to work.” “There is only one way to maintain prosperity and that is to work,” was Mr Massey’s next period. “ We must work not only as individuals but as sections of the community, and what we have got to see particularly is that the whole community pulls together.” “ We come now to old age pensions ! —” he continued. A voice: That is what you kicked against. “ I increased the- old age pensions by 50 per cent.” Mr Massey replied. A voice: . You want to go back to Hansard. Bill. Soldiers’ pensions (“ not vote catching,” the speaker said), taxation in New Zealand as compared with Australia. the country’s ability to pay its obligations (with a word or two in denunciation of Bolshies and Rods), note circulation (Mr Massey offered, amid laughter, to buy as many pound notes as anyone brought him— -at 30s each) kept the speech moderately well connected, but there was a constant fir<* of interjections. There was one man with a kind of Cockney accent that annoyed Mr Massey. “ I wonder what countrymen these men are.” lie said at last. “Perhaps they are Irishmen,” suggested somebody. No.” said Mr Massey. “ they aro not good enough to be irishmen.” Go on. Bill, on with the dance, said an encouraging voice. “ We will have a Schottischo next.” An optimistic note—a hope that things would improve about Christmas time, brought a very plump interjection : You have the turkey. Bill : wc will have the feathers.” 'J ho laughter was long in subsiding Mr Massey professed not to have heard the joke*. Me said lie enjoyed a joke as well as auvone— when he heard it. What did he say,” inquired a loud • “ l don't know,” said Mr Massey. “ When there is a joke going I like to enjoy it.” on are the joke,” said a voice. Ihere was a man spoke to me about ostriches! “ Mr Massey began. ‘Aon ought to shear them ” said an interject or* Mr Massey was not to bo put off his -ostrich story.“ A man interjected, just like you,” lie said. “ ‘ what about ostriches. Bill? ’ T replied, • My friend, reminds me of ostriches because they lmvo.no brains.’** A reference to Air Wilford 7 s speech brought a round of applause. “ Wo were told quite a lot of things the other night.” he said. “ I don’t know whether this was the hall.” This was the hall,*’ said a reassuring voice. “ We were told we borrowed too much.’ - Mr Alassey continued. “Now, there are a number oi railways that are incomplete, and that have to be com pleted in the near future. They are earning nothing, but as soon as we get them interest earning we can look for 1 part of the revenue : and it is our duty to finish them as soon n«? we can.” *•* A voice: How long did it take to put the hole through the hill ? Another member ot the audience insisted that Mr Wilford had not said that the country could do without borrowing, but had merely read Mr Alassey’s 1911 manifesto. “ There has been a great war since chen.” Air Massey replied. “ These works cannot be paid out. of revenue ; you must borrow money.” A voice : Make another out. Hydro-electricity raised another litt? 3 storm. “ You are going to make Caircerburv

!pay double for it.” said a voice. “ We don't propose to do anything iof tli© sort,” Air Massey said. “ Can j terbury will be treated quite fairly.” ! Sir James Alien'a increase of £IOOO i a year was thrown up against Mr Alas soy when he started to talk of the need for retrenchment and the cutting down jcH salaries. He replied that Sir } -lames, as New Zealand’s representative, could not live in a second-el a.«,> ; house in a. second rato street. | “ Don’t get too near the edge," cautioned an auditor, who did not ap parently wish to so© Air Alassey over ■ reach himself on the edge of the o.rches tral well, “ T never fall." he replied coufi deutly. “ You will next Thursday,” said rh<> auditor. A great crash out of doors near the stalls entrance barricade brought every thing to a tense standstill. “ Here they come." people shouted, standing up in exportation of an in vasion by the side entrances. The ; constables who were sprinkled round ; the hdll straightened up. and ushers scurried out. No invasion occurred. Apparently the barriers bad held. (Later investigations proved that the crash was merely a packet oi* crackers let off outside). “ It is only the noise of the Red Feds,'” said Mr Alassey confidently, after the scare had subsided. “ You have got a red face, anyhow,” said a man. Air Wilford ftoes not know the j difference between the consolidated ; fund and the public works fund.” Mr Massey said, in the next breath. Incredulous “ Oh’s “ showed how much he was believed.

Air Alassey read an extract from a, speech which he had made at a send-off to a certain member on the s-übjeot of Liberalism and loyalty. He clouded the name of the member in obscurity. “Who was the member?”' said a voice. “Dr Newman,” said Air Massey. “Not Ricketty Russell?” “ No." said Air Alassey. “ you are welcome to Rickettv Russell.” “What about Vigor Brown?” ‘ Vigor Brown,” said Air Alassev, “was not afraid to say what ho thought.” The rest of the meeting was more or less scrappy. A subject would be opened by Air Alassey, and he would he side-tracked by a question or interjection. • * “If we go to Ungland to borrow money what happens?” he asked. “ We leave it there.” was the reply. “Tf we got the right immigrants, lie said. “ we could do with 100.000 of them. They would help us ” A voice: To pay the taxes. Air Alassey : Exactly, exactly. The voice: By gawd, you’re cunning, Bill. “ I am prepared to let the * soldiers off if it i, necessary to do it,” sai l the Prime Minister, referring to overvalued lands. “ Will you answer questions afterwards?” challenged a man who evidently had something on his mind about soldiers’ lands. “No.” said Air Alassey, “a Prime Minister doesn’t answer questions. That is left to unfortunate candidates.” “Can’t you answer them. Bill?” somebody persisted. " Ton my word, I think I would enjoy myself for an hour or two answering questions.” Air Alassey retorted, “ but I have to carry out the business of the country.” “ 800 hoc* " greeted this reply, and a voice remarked, “I thought yo.i said your secretary did that.” “ Uifaer my direction.” said Air Alassey. who had previously drawn a vivid picture of perspiring secretaries attending to the country's affairs, while he delivered policy speeches. “ T will take a week’s holiday after next Thursday.” he added. “Three years, you moan,” said n chorus from the gods. “ When are you going to get on to proportional representation,” sail a loud voice close in. Air Alassey picked out an inoffensive looking man in the front stalls and started a gas attack about what “ Ins friend down there ” was thinking. The inoffensive tnau pointed his finger upwards and said ‘up there.” “ No.” said Air Alassey. “ they are ladies and gentlemen up there.” This nettled the inoffensive fi\ont stallite. and in a very aggrieved voice he protested that he had not interjected all night. He said it in a voice that suggested that his boss might bo up on the stage readying up a “ please explain ” for such a. reprejiensib’e thing as interrupting the Prime Aliu- “ Well. T must have been mistaken.” said Air Alassey weakly. “Then why don’t you apologise?” said the little man. ‘ 1 apologise,” said Air Alassey, win was having a game of hide and .seek with some questioners in thq same corner. One of them was screened off by a curtain in a box. and whenever Air Massey was turning the other way a question “out of the box” was fired at liiin. “ There must he a vo-ntriloquist here.” said Air Alassey lugubriously. proportional representation. Ale Alassey resumed, bad been called by the “ Bulletin ” “ contortional misrepresentation . ’ * “It worked ali right in Ireland,” said a man in the audience. “ Without* ic they would never have had the treaty.” “It will work all right whore the people arc of ono opinion politically Mr Alassey replied, “ but it won’t work in a country like this.” A Voice: Try it. Another Voice (more in sorrow than in auger): Yc-u promised it, Bill. Mr Massey: 1 never promised it. j The Voice: Yes. for the Upper I House. i Air Alassey: Ah. that’s a pother story, i What will suit the Upper "House will not suit the Lower. If we were going to elective Upper House we might as well have it with proportional representation as any other way. The country quota was given as the stumbling-block" to proportional representation, and Air Massey very kindly explained the principle of the country quota. “In other words,” said a voice from the ventriloquiol corner, <f four country people can outvote five town people." . Air MOssey replied that it was easier for a city member to represent a popuj lation of 18,000 than for a country \ member to represent 14,000 or !o,GOO. The representative of the Proportional .Representation Society who ha dtoured New Zealand had admitted that the two things were diametrically opposed, as proportional representation worked on the p>inciple of; one vote one value. The Government of A New South Wale*, unt

der proportional representation, was a minority government. A Voice: So are you. Bill. Air Alassey: Oil no. I'm not (groans and incredulous “oil’s”). He explained that in the fifteen seats in which no Reform candidate? stood, he had not been credited with any Reform votes. One of the most anxious moments occurred -when a leaf of Air Alassey’s notes fluttei-ed into the footlights. He gingerly lowered himself like a strong man about to make a record lift. Mock groans and warnings burst from hundreds of lips. All the bending had to he done at the knees, as the upper regions were long past the bencbng stage. The Prime Minister recovered the vagrant leaf with a supreme effort. “That’s all right.” he said, as much to himself as to the audience, as he straightened his portly bulk again. “ Where does Vigor Brown belong to?” somebody asked. “To the Reform Party." said Air Massey. “ When Sir Joseph Ward was defeated, Air Brown said, ‘ I cannot possibly vote for Mr Wilford : when 1 have to choose 1 will choose Mr Ala*sey.* ”

Air Massey did not- answer Air Wilford'? question os to whether lie would join with Air Holland to turn the Liberals out; but he fulminated freely about compacts and bargains.

“ I will say." he concluded, “ that there is no combination in existence (hotween the Liberals and the Reds), bur there was an attempt. We may possibly—although 1 do not think so—have a party in power that will be able to dominate the other party that, happens to be on the Treasury benches. I say such a state of things would be a perfect curse to a country such as this

:i We hear a lot about .Liberalism. ' Mr Alassey added. T claim to be as good a Liberal as anyone. Liberalism will never die : but that form of Liberalism will not- live that exists by mud-throwing, maligning men in office, misrepresentation and scandalmongering. That sort of Liberalism will not live, and will die next Thursday.” Great applause greeted the close of Air Alassov’s speech, and “ For He’s a Jelly Good Follow ” was taken up in the. Reform groups, mostly on the stage and on the floor of the theatre. The chairman’s voice was hardly heard declaring that s- vote of thanks and confidence had been carried. Two things were badly missing from Air Alassev’s meeting. One was an answer to Air Wilford’s plain question about Air Alassey’s future relationship with Air H. E. Holland, the-other was the National Anthem.