HIT IN FACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 215, 10 September 1940, Page 8

HIT IN FACE.

WITH RIPE TOMATO. "VERY SOFT AND JUICY." (By Air.) SYDNEY, Aug. 7. The former Premier (Mr. B. S. B. Stevens) achieved a new political prominence by being struck in the face with a very large and over-ripe tomato while addressing a. meeting in South Parade, Campsie. The tomato, which appeared to have been thrown by tome youths from the outskirts of the meeting, struck Mr. Stevens just below the brow, making a plop, according to a police officer who witnessed the incident, that was audible over the loud-speaker. Observers described the tomato as being in the best tradition of electioneering missiles of this sort—very soft and juicy. Thus Mr. Stevens is the first prominent Australian politician to be singled out for such attention since Mr. Hughes (now Federal AttorneyGeneral) received the historic egg at Warwick.

Hot Disconcerted. Mr. Stevens was not disconcerted, and in a few moments, with a quip, had reasserted his mastery over the meeting. "That won't do Dan Mulcahy any good!" eried an interjector. "I can hardly believe that any candidate would waste a good tomato like this!" said Mr. Stevens, examining the squashed fruit at his feet, while the crowd roared at his sally.,Mr. Stevens then continued his speech and there were no further interruptions. The Campsie meeting was the second of a number of street-corner gatherings which Mr. Stevens held in the course of his dynamic campaign for Lang, where he is challenging the sitting Labour member, Mr. Dan Mulcahy. At the time he was speaking from a fable to some hundreds of people, all of whom, with the exception of a small body of young men at the rear, were listening appreciatively to his address. No names were taken by the police. Street-Corner Meetings. Mr.' Stevens spoke at three streetcorner meetings and at each had large attendances. He was in his best form, speaking masterfully and incisively, and, except for the few minutes occupied by the incident at Campsie, his addresses were given to the accompaniment of applause. Mr. Stevens said that what the electors of Lang had to do was to satisfy themselves whether he or Mr. Mulcahy would better serve the community in a national administration. He emphasised the vital dependence of Australia upon the Suez- Canal. He said that the closing down of Walsh Island seemed to be the stock question addressed to him by interrupters in the electorate. His reply to them was, "When you say I closed down Walsh Island, you are wrong. It wa& closed by the men themselves. When I was Treasurer in the Bavin Administration, Walsh Island was a commercial success, but the first Lang Administration encouraged the men to believe that they could run the show, and it quickly went into deficit and closed down. "You can't keep a State - enterprise alive just for the sake of finding jobs,'! Mr. Stevens said. "Walsh Island was competing with places like the Clyde Engineering Company, where at that time nearlv 2000 men were employed. You go and ask those men whether they were in favour of job control at Walsh Island. "It is clear to me that yon fellows know nothing about Walsh Island. You are talking on the basis of pamphlets distributed by Mr. Mulcahy, who also does not know anything about it."