MR. TAYLOR ON THE COAST.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1105, 19 April 1911, Page 6

MR. TAYLOR ON THE COAST.

■ A REPORT CONTRADICTED. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Christchurch,-April 18. Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., complained -to a "Star" interviewer to-day that the Press Association's abbreviated report of his Rcefton meeting was "almost as misleading as any abbreviated report can possibly be." Tho .meeting lasted, ho said, for about two hours and a half, and the discussion on the points in dispute with the Rev. W. Thompson did not occupy more than twenty minutes. Mr.' Taylor stated' that the meeting was one of the iuost orderly he has addressed in New Zealand. He received a note from tho chairman, tho Her. R. Wilson, written on the following day, saying that the general impression in Rcefton was that the meeting was a great success, that the other side admitted Mr. Taylor had annihilated Mr. Thompson, and .killed his chances for the meeting on the night following Mr. Taylor's meeting, that people admired the way in which Mr. Taylor handled the audience, and asking him if possiblo to return to Reefton. At Rnnanga Mr. Taylor had what he described as tho most uncommon meeting in tho whole of his experience. It was held on a Saturday night. Tlicro was a large audience, nearly all men, mostly miners.

At the conclusion of his. ..address, Mr. R. Semple, organiser of (ho New Zealand Miners' Federation, spoke in support of the same motion as had been carried at Reeftou, which timed the meeting to do all in its power to carry National Prohibition this year. He said that hitherto he had not supported the Prohibition party, but. he was satisfied that the complete prohibition of ' the liquor traffic, for a number of years would result in a very large number of people bringing a keener and soberer judgment to bear upon every political mid- social reform, and he intended this year to voto for the principle. Besides that, he would urge all tho workers of Xe«- Zealand to do the same thing. He thought that tho Dominion should try to ascertain what social, political, ami physical results would follow the complete destruction of Ihe drinking customs for at least fivo years and a half, (lie term which the law prescribed for National Prohibition if it were carried. lie also announced his intention to publicly advocate that course to the .workers of tho. Dominion. Mr. Webb, president of H\-- Minors' Federation, announced that \\>\ intended (0 follow the same course. Tho motion was carried unanimously, and .Mr. Taylor did not think that 25 people-'in (ho hall abstained from voting. The Greymouth meeting, which wa* held on tho night of his arrival on thi> Coast, Mr. Taylor said, might be much more correctly described as "fierce" than the Ecofton' mooting. It; began nt 9,15 p.m., on recount of the late arrival of the train. It was one continuous fight from the'time of stinting until it ended at 11 o'clock. No motion was submitted to that meeting, but on Sunday night, at another meeting in the same' town, the motion submitted in (lie other centres was carried.