NOISY MEETING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 83, 5 October 1938, Page 23

NOISY MEETING

, MR. WRIGHT AT ARO STREET

Addressing a large audience at the Aro Street Mission Hall last evening, Mr. R. A. Wright, Independent candidate for Wellington West, faced an audience which was composed of a majority of opponents. Trom the beginning of his address until the end several persons kept up a running fire of interjections, good humoured * and otherwise, but the opposition. did riot prevent the. speaker being heard. It was incorrect, said Mr. Wright, to assume that no members of Parliament took" She slightest interest in the worker save those who were the official members of the party in the House. In answer to an interjector, be said he disagreed with those who contended that the only genuine workers were those who did hard manual work. They were unquestionably workers, but in New Zealand there were very few people who were not workers—who did not give service to the community. Every man who contributed anything to the welfare of the community was a worker, whatever his occupation might be. As a member of Parliament he claimed that he had always in his public and private capacity endeavoured to treat all workers* and all sections of the community with fair play. He was not a class representative, and never had been.

Answering another interjector. Mr. Wright said that if the so-called wealthy people -in New Zealand were stripped of all they possessed, and it was divided amongst those who were not wealthy, it would be a mere bagatelle. As a matter of fact wealth in New Zealand was more evenly distributed than in- most countries in the world.