UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXII, Issue 19437, 24 October 1925, Page 14

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK

NOISY LABOUR “BRAVES” HECKLE LADY CANDIDATE

A small but noisy section of Labour supporters was much in evidence at Miss Melville’s meeting at St. George’s Hall, Kingsland, states the Auckland ‘Herald,” but the candidate was fully equal to the occasion. As Government candidate for Grey Lynn Miss Melville has shown herself to be an uncompromising opponent of the official Labour Party, and it occasioned no surprise when a number of Labour “braves” took up a position near the door.

The hall was packed to the doors, seating accommodation in the shape of planks and benzine tins having to be provided on the stage. Many people were unable to gain admission. Mr T. Mclndoe presided, and did much to keep the meeting within bounds. A scathing attack on the professed aims of the New Zealand Labour Party earned the attention of the noisy section early in the meeting. Miss Melville remarked that although the Labour candidates gave various versions of the land policy the people had to keep their attention on the Labour platform adopted at the conference of last Easter as it was framed witfc. not such a close eye upon the election. This statement evoked a storm of: dissent. Two men in particular at the back of the ha.ll made frequent inter Sections, and the chairman started to intervene, but Alias Melville said she preferred to deal with them as they did not like to hear the truth about the Labour Party. She expressed the opinion that the interrupters were the same as those who had attended her meeting at Grey Lynn. Labour and Women. The candidate said she had noticed that day in the remarks of Mr Holland that the Labour leader had realised the women of New Zealand had votes, and he had slipped in a little clause, not mentioned in the platform, providing for the removal of all political disabilities of women. The only political disability she knew of was that women were not allowed to sit in the Upper House, and while Mr Holland apparently proposed to remove that he was committed to the abolition of the Upper House when he got into power. “If the Labour Party was genuine in its attitude toward women it would put up some women candidates,” said Miss Melville. “They cannot tell me that they have not got women in the movement in Auckland .equal at least to the men they are supporting.” A little later the candidate was repeating something that Mr Holland

had said when there was uproar from the back of the hall. Miss Melville: I do not like what Mr Holland says either, and I do not wonder that you dislike it. (Applause).

The candidate also found occasion to remind the Labour section that she was there to speak to the other people present as well. This silenced them for a while. Reference to the land question and its application to the housing problem were warmly applauded. The Government Policy There were demands from the back of the hall for a statement of her platform and Miss Melville promptly replied that her platform was that of Mr Coates —a very simple one that did not promise something for nothing. (Applause.) Reference to the efforts being made to produce class warfare in a young democratic country drew further inter jections, but the majority of those present were with the candidate and she was able to proceed with her speech. In answering a number of questions Miss Melville explained that she had not said, as stated by a questioner, that no member of the Labour Party had been born, in New Zealand or fought for the country, but that none of the leaders had been born in the Dominion and therefore did not understand our attitude toward the land and our passion for the freehold. A voice: Mr Massey was not bom in ‘New Zealand. Miss Melville: No, but he came to the country as a boy, grew up among us and so came to know the mind of the people on this question. After answering a number of other questions the candidate, who was frequently applauded, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks, the mover saying that the matter of a vote of confidence could be more appropriately recorded at the ballot box.