PROTEST MEETING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20112, 5 December 1939, Page 7

PROTEST MEETING

CONTROL OF IMPORTS HAMILTON DISTRICT CLAUDE LANDS ASSEMBLY LABOUR OPPOSITION (Per Press Association.) HAMILTON, this day... A large-scale mass meeting with the object of impressing on the Government the need for the revision of certain legislation, more particularly that relating to import control, was staged at Claudelands showgrounds this afternoon. The meeting was sponsored by the Hamilton Reltailers’ Association on behalf of the merchants, employers of labour, employees and farmers. The majority of shops in Hamilton, Te Awamutu, Morrinsville, Matamata, Te Kuiti and Otorohanga were closed, and hundreds of people from these towns attended the meeting as well as a large number of farmers. Definite opposition to the meeting was expressed last week by the Waikato District Trades’ Council which invited the Labour movement and supporters of the Government to ignore the meeting entirely. The workers’ emergency committee issued a circular and held a meeting of shop assistants, endeavouring to organise them in an effort not to attend the meeting.

Yesterday morning notices of a threatening nature appealed on the shop windows, pasted on by unidentified persons. The Mayor of Hamilton, Mr. H. D. Caro, presided over the meeting, the official speakers being Mr. A. J. Sinclair, Te Awamutu, for the farmers. Mr. D. I. Gate, Hamilton, representating the builders, Mr. B. E. Woodhams. Hamilton, retailers, and Mr. Gainor Jackson, Auckland, representing the importers.