WELLINGTON SOUTH

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 67, 13 December 1918, Page 6

WELLINGTON SOUTH

BY-ELECTION CAMPAIGN

MR. FROST AT NEWTOWN

CHALLENGE TO MR. SEHPLE

In furtherance of his candidature for the Wellington South seat, Air. George Frost addressed a meeting in tho Newtown Library last night. Mr. H. Stockbridge presided over a fairly large attendance. Prior to the commencement of the address the audience stood, as a. mark of respect to the memory of the lote Air. A. H. Hindmarsh, tho former member for the constituency. Air. Frost delivered a speech on similar lines to his previous night's address at Brooklyn. ' He said he was standing as an independent progressive candidate. When the National Government leaders returned iVom the Peace Conference they woiild doubtless 'decide as to their fu-, ture policy, and he would make it his business to support the party which would work in the interests of the masses. His policy was the greatest • good for tho greatest number. Though the National Government had worked to win the war, they had failed miserably in regard to preventing profiteering, and they had not paid sufficient attention to domestic legisi.'.lion. The State should control prices and allow only fair profits to be made. Public works had been neglected by the Government, which was also responsible for the increased cost of living. He charged the Government with not having done justice to soldiers in respect to allowances, especially to tho men who went away in the early days of the war. That . was a matter in which the fair thing would have to be done, even if it had to be effected by taxation. He urged that more attention should be paid to education, especially continuation classes, and maintained that the vote for education last session was insufficient for the purpose. Mr. R. Seruple, the Labour candidate, had stated that he (Mr. Frost) had voted in the City Council against the tramwaymen receiving Is. 4d. per hour. "I wish to give that the lie direct," added Air. Frost, "and'l issue a straight-out challenge. It Air. Semple can, prove his statement I wili retire from this campaign, on the undertaking that if Air. Semple finds his statement incorrect he / will retire from the contest." (Applause.) It had been said that he had not worked in the interests of Labour on. the C/ity Council, but ho had .received the' thanks of the Corporation employees for having been instrumental in- getting their wages increased. If elected, he would do his best in the interests of the masses, Mr. Frost referred to tho hydro-electric legislation of the Government, and dealt with the housing question, suggesting that this problem could only be solved by. a building scheme in the suburbs, by an extension of the .tramway system, and by a cheapening of tram fares: A resolution was moved that a vote of thanks be accorded the speaker, but that the meeting plpce its confidence in Mr. Semple. The resolution was not put to the meet, lag, but Air. Frost said-he would accept the thanks of the audience, feeling suro that on the day of the election many people l who did not make it a practice to attend,political meetings for the sake of causing disturbance, would express itneir confidence in 'him.

MR. SEMPLE AT BROOKLYN Mr. R. Semple, Labour candidate for AVellington. South, addressed • a crowded meeting at Brooklyn last night. Mr. D. R-. Kennedy presided. - Mr. Semjde declared himself unequivocally a Labour man, and said that- he would always be on the side of his class whether in the industrial or the political arena. He referred also "to the poss'.bility of the sectarian issue being introduced, as it had been in Wellington Central. He .warned men and women of the electorate not to heed the people who would drag such an issue into a political squabble, It was not. decent in • a civilised community that people should inquire into one another s religion or sneer at or hate another because of his religion. He charged the Government with having violated every principle of constitutional government. They had- voted themselves another term of office, kept'their hold on the Treasury, and paid themselves their salaries. In this last session the Government had-done nothing of nnv value to the people of the country. 'They had rushed through a few Bills) and then the Prime Minister and Sir Joseph Ward rushed off to England. In a few words about himself he said: "I have represented the miners of New Zealand for fifteen yeais. I have been in all their fights with an undofeated record. And I -tell you that the man who stops with them as long as that has not got to be a coward and he hasn't got to be nsloep."' He asked the electors' not to concern themselves with him or with his industrial record, but to vote for the principles of the party. j He gave some harrowing memories of the Huntly disaster, and then he declared: "That disaster was the direct result of the actions of this Government, who aided and abetted the formation of blackleg unions, broke down their right of_ inspection of mines, and allowed the mine to become a gasometer." • On the women's rights question he said that the Reform Party had treated tho women very well! Women were' not allowed to sit in Parliament in New Zealand although they could in England and Australia. "There are four classes of pr-c-ple," he said, "who are not allowed to sit in our Parliament—the lunatics, the bankrupts, the criminals, and the women!" Could women vote for a Government which ranked them with the bankrupt, the criminal, and the lunatic? Replying to a question, Mr. Semple said: "My attitude towards the. present system of arbitration is generally known throughout this country to be a ■ hostile one. I don't believe in the present system of arbitration. Our system of settling industrial disputes must be changed completely." A vote of confidence in Mr. Semple was carried,* on the motion of Mr. Glover seconded by Mr. H. Holland, M.P.

Mr. John Castle, "the Independent Radical Reconstructionist" candidate, will address the electors at Newtown, Brooklyn, and Berhampore, as advertised elsewhere.

Mr. R. Semple, the Labour candidate, will address an open-air meeting in Vogeltown, and othor meetings in support of the Labour candidate will be held in the Library, Newtown and in Pnllford's Hall, Brooklvn. The speakers will be the Hon. J. T. Paul, M.L.C., Messrs. H. E. Holland, M.P.. and A. L. Monteith, and in Fullford's Hall, Brooklvn, the sneakers will be Mesiiu P. Fraser, M.P., J. M'Combs, M.P., and M. J. Reardon.