FREE SPEECH

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 723, 26 December 1933, Page 7

FREE SPEECH

THE GOOD OLD DAYS CHAIRMAN KIDNAPPED AND PANDEMONIUM REIGNS. BIG STRIKE ECHOES. ; In the late 80's industrial unrest which had been growing at an alarming rate in Great Britain and the oo-lo-nies, came to a head with the disastrous maritime strike in August, 1890, (says the Sydney Sun). For many . years afterwards that upheaval was , a nightmare to members of Parliament and political platform orators. It was constantly being hurled at thein, and politicians who had nothing whatever to do with it had to carry •their share of whatever odium it entailed. The result" was that public meetings of a political nature were usually wild affairs. Shortly after the strike had fizzled out it was announced that Mr. John Haynes, M.P. for Mudg.ee, would deliver a political address at the Protestant Hall on the subject of "Land Tax and Co-operation — First Cause ; of the People." It was also lannounced that Mr. R. M'eKillop, ex-president of the Wharf Labourers' Union, would preside. That section. of the public which has a taste for attending. public meetings, but very Jittle in other respects, saw to it that neither of th& engagements announced would be fulfilled. McKillop did not fill the chair, and Mudgee Haynes did not speak on the subject which he had selected for the occasion. Just before 8 o'clock McKillop was ■in a1 portieo of the hall, pre'sumably on his way up the side entrance to the platform. A number of men emerged from an anteroom and barred his progress. "You shall not preside for Mudgee Haynes," they told him, and although he proelaimed that he had given his word and would stand the brunt of it, he was affordea no opportunity of carrying out his intention. Those who waylaid him were as firm as friendly, and thus it was that at 8 o'clock Mr. Haynes, sitting in a little room off the stage, had the information brought to him that his chairman had been carried off by a giant cabman, vanman, or something, who,- previously to performing this great feat, had flashed a fist the size of a leg of mutton in close proximity to the nose of the informant aforesaid. Mr. Haynes then proposed to go on without ,a, chairman, but two or three friends who were with him urged that this would notdo'at-all. The gentleman who had brought the tidings of the abduction of the ex-president of the Wharf Labourers' Union, thereupon announced that sooner than see the- chair vacant he would take it himself. He was not perhaps the very bfefet man for the position. He had all the apparently unrestrainable tendencies to wave his arms like a deranged semaphore and a description of utterance which' was calculated to provoke criticism of an uncomfortable character. However, as it turned out, it didn't very much I matter. j It was freely prophesied in the 1 portieo that there would be a lively J time. There was. The hall was i crammed full of as wild a mob of ad- j vocates of "free speech" as it would j be possible to get together. Every- j body spoke, including the speakers, I and they all spoke together and screamed, stamped, perspired and foamed at the mouth together. The chairman, whose name was given as | Mr. Wright, was. heard to make the j prelminiary remark, "Gentlemen." | The noisy advocates of fair play knew that he meant "Savages," and they took fine care that they behaved as such. He tried agaih by saying, "Mr. McKillop — r — " "Is drunk," interjected a man with a vacuous face and the roar of a bull. After the chairman had succeeded in getting some perky sehtences out to the effect that "The great socia1 ! problem is the labour question," Mr. Haynes was introduced. He was a stockily-built, powerful man of medium henght, but his voice was not ' as robust as his bieeps. His lips moved quickly, but what he said no one in the audience knew. "You blaclcleg," someone shouted. A large man in th'e' gallery threw a piece of green ribbon on the stage. A youth picked it up and handed it to Haynes, who threw it down and stamped his foot on it, announcing defiantly at the same time that he would put his foot on it throughout the country. Th'e uproar became greater than ever. Haynes was heard to say, "I could fight from 'one year's end to the other and wipe out these men (wiav•ing his arm in the direetion of the turbulent galleryites) without pert spiring." Mr. Sharpe president of the Trades and Labour 'Counciil) and Tommy Houghton secretary) walked, with some other Labour represenitatives, on to the platform, and for a time •there was comparative peace. Sharpe Was a Government Printing shop compositor, and Houghton had a small job printing business. Both got into Parliament with the first 13 Labour representatives. Sharpe lasted only. one term, and then went back to the Government Printing Office. Houghton was a mediocre political windbag. His Parliamentary life was brief and unprofitable. To put it mildly, the m-eeting broke up in disorder, according to the plan of the fair-minded rabble which ip those days could invade a hired hall without interference by the police.