RED-FED METHODS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14839, 3 December 1913, Page 10

RED-FED METHODS.

Was it a mere coincidence that the Social Democratic-Party . should announce that a meeting would be held on the Opawa bridge at eight o'clock last night, when the Reform candidate's supporters were asked' to assemble at the same hour in the echoolroom close by ? The advertisement inserted by Mr M. J. Miller's honorary organiser read:' "Ladies are specially invited." But to got ..to the meeting the majority of thorn would, have to cross.the bridge on which the Social Democratic Party's supporters would congregate to listen to "Professor" Mils. '■■■■.

The Social Democratic Party, however, did not hold its meeting on the Opawa Bridge. At ten minutes to eight there was an expectant crowd, mostjy composed of working men, waiting on the bridge for the "Professor." Among the crowd were three mounted who stated that they would not permit traffio to be held up by a meeting on a public thoroughfare * "We never intended to hold the meeting on the bridge!" said "Professor" Mills, who had come up in the meantime. He was saved the awkward question of being asked why he.advertised that the meeting would be held on the bridge, or in what particular spot it had been intended that the crowd should gather, by a remark from a man in the crowd that a neighbouring fidld would make a good place for the meeting. The owner was then interviewed, the necessary permission obtained, and the two hundred people assembled had the opportunity of listening to such remarks as these: —

"Wo were told that the "specials" had gone mad and were shooting poople trp there (Wellington). The police say the shots omanated from the crowd. They might have done; I'm not saying they didn't. One man was shot in the shoulder, and the bullet was going downwards. Another one shot was a hoy of nine or ten years. He was shot in the foot. Is it possible for a man standing on the footpath to shoot another man in tho shoulder like that? Tβ it possible- that a man sitting on a horse is going to shoot a boy in tho foot?" The shaker was Mr H. R. Vovce, Ffcretary of. the Lyttelton Watersiders' Union. . Meanwhile, Mr Millers supporters in the schooh-oom had to listen to the echoes of the voices of tho "strike ' supporters. There- were not many ladies present—a not unnatural result of the "Professor's" advertisement.