MR J. McCOMES AT SUMNER.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 15

MR J. McCOMES AT SUMNER.

Mr J. McComhs, the Social-Demo-cratic candidate for the Lyttelton seat, spoko in the open air to a Sumner audience lost . Mra Cunnington presided, and asked for a patient hearing for the candidate. Mr McCombs spoke on the. lines- of his speech at Woolston. occupying about two hours in delivering hisJaddress. -hiring the speaker's exposition of the present industrial trouble, from his point of view, there was considerable interruption, a section of the audience disagreeing with tho candidate's statements. . There wero two factions, fairly evenly divided, present, and the "boohing" of one side was counter-balanced by the cheers of the other, and vice-versa. . A series of loud arguments constantly" took place among the,! audience, whica resulted in complctelv holding up the candidate occasionally. The efforts of the chairwoman to. preserve order were fairly efficacious, however, though she also came in for a fair share of chaff. : When Mr McCombs left the' discus sion of Labour affairs and touched upon electoral reform and other political questions, ho was listened to with much closer attention, interruptions being infrequent. About half-way through the meeting Mrs. Cunnington vacated the chair, as the wind waa very cold. In answering questions, the candidate said there had been a dastardly attempt to connect him with the article 'Scabs—-Male and Female," and with the case that had been taken to Court, but he regarded it as significant that as soon as it had been establishei? that he had nothing to Ado with it, the case had been dropped promptly. He had nothing to' do with the Federation of Labour, in spite of what the Christchurch "Preas" said about He was in favour of the .police forming any union they liked to form, but whether they should affiliate" with the Federation of "Labour was a question for the police to decide. . "Right through question time the candidate was heckled a good deal, and oon.-aderab!e hostile feeling was shown. A vote of thanks and confi-lence was proposed, and, on n show of "hands, declared carried by 67 votes to-2.

Mr W. RadcliSe addressed two meetings yesterday. In the afternoon he epoke at Purau, the meeting which was presided over by Mr H. Gardiner according him a vote of thanks. Last ni"ht he addressed tho electors of Her.tlicote in the Club Hall, there bem X a largo attendance. A motion expressing thanks to. and confidence in Mr Radcliffe, was carried. Mr McDowell presided at the meeting.