THE LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14843, 8 December 1913, Page 8

THE LYTTELTON BY-ELECTION.

!MR LAURENSON AT WOOLSTON. A warm episode~n™rked the opening of the proceedings at a meeting addressed by Mr J. B. tie Opposition candidate, at \Voolstonj Saturday night. Mr H. fa. Newman presided over a fairly large attendance. "I wish to correct a.statement which is going round the town." said the candidate. "I was asked at a meeting a day or two ago what I had to do with the formation of a union in the Scottish Society's rooms. The facts are that a centleman came to my office one day and asked for some blotting paper and ink. He said he was busy, and asked mc if I would take them to a meeting upstairs. I took them up. I did not know what the meeting was about. "You're wrong. I saw you sitting in that room for ten .minutes," rapped out a member of the audience. Sir Laurenson: You saw mc sitting in that room? The accuser: Yes. Mr Laurenson: You did not. I vras not there for half a minute. I was only there long enough to hand over that paper and ink, and when yon 6ay what you do, you are making an extraordinary statement. The accuser: You were there longer. Mr Laurenson: I told Mr Thorn today what I have told you. Another man: Do you mean to tell us that you had nothing to do. with the formation of that union? Mr Laurenson: I had nothing to do with the formation of the union. I would not care twopence about denying it, if I had been there. Will you take my word when I say I was not there? A burst of applause from a large section of the audience greeted the candidate's statement, and the incident closed. In reply to a question Mx Laurenson declared that the employers of New Zealand as a body were not against unionism. Asked as to how he would solve the present dispute, if he were the member for the district, Mr Laurenson said he would ask from the Lyttelton Waterside Workers' oxecutive a definite statement as to how the. trouble in their opinion arose. When he had obtained that, he would ask for a like statement from the Employers' Association. And when he had the two, he would try and solve the trouble. Hβ might not have the brains to do so, but he averred solemnly that he believed that there were sufficient brains in the two bodies to settle the matter.

The Chairman moved a vote of thanks to Mr Laurenson.

A member of the audience proposed a vote of no-confidence.

The candidate said he did not wish for any vote. It was really his duty to thank them for attending his meeting. Upon his motion a vote of thanks was accorded the chairman.

Earlier in the day, Mr Laurenson addressed meetings at Heathcote and Sumner, at tho former place receiving a rote of thanks for his address.