RIVAL ORATORS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 162, 29 September 1927, Page 11

RIVAL ORATORS

COMPETITION KEEN LAST SHOTS AT RAGLAN NGARUAWAHIA MEETINGS (SUN'S Special Reporter.) NGARUAWAHIA, Wednesday. INTEREST in the Raglan byA election was maintained to the last stages of the campaign, and competition for the ears of Ngaruawahia electors was keen last evening, when three separate meetings were held in the town. The closing address of Mr. W. J. Taylor (Independent Reform) failed to attract a full house to the Town Hall, largely on account of open-air counter-attractions. Mr. Hall Skelton, speaking in the Liberal interests, was the first of the outdoor orators to make his bow, and he soon had a crowd collected round the motor-truck from which he was speaking. Mr. Skelton improved the shining hour and assailed Labour and Reform alike. While Labour was under the lash there was a sudden torrent of words from a few yards along the street, and lo! Mr. Walter Nash, organiser of the New Zealand Labour Party, had begun a counter speech. LIFE OF TRADE “Competition is the life of trade,” said Mr. Skelton, in no wise disconcerted by the interruption, but thereafter he had to be content with fewer hearers. The gatherings drawn by each speaker varied in size as the subject under discussion was interesting or dull. Fragments repeatedly detached themselves from the fringes of each little crowd and adjourned to hear another side of the political argument. The recrimination between Liberals and Labour was a feature of the closing stages of the campaign. Mr. Nash last evening recalled that in 1925 certain prominent Liberals, now electioneering in Raglan, were associated with efforts to effect a fusion between the Reform and Liberal parties. This line had been followed by Mr. H. E. Holland the evening before, and the argument was rebutted by Mr. Atmore, who replied at Huntly last evening, pointing out that the first overtures toward a fusion came from the Reform Party, and not from the Liberals. Mr. Hall Skelton also responded to the Labour Leader’s onslaught, and mentioned that Mr. Holland’s address at Ngaruawahia the evening before had been simply a Liberal address, based on the principles of former great Liberal leaders. INDEPENDENT’S SINCERITY Meanwhile Mr. Taylor was addressing a quiet audience at the Town Hall. He reiterated his sincerity as an Independent Reformer, not prepared to subscribe to the belief that the Reform Party had caused the present deflation, but still anxious to retain his political independence. It was his policy to be straightforward and evade no issues. He would not descend to the electioneering tactics others had employed. He would not, for example, try to sail under different sets of colours, as Mr. Lee Martin was endeavouring do. Religion in schools was a question that most politicians dodged. His opinion, and he was not frightened to express it, was that religious training should be given in the home. Parents to-day were neglecting to pay sufficient attention to the religious needs of their children. Among other measures he advocated were a tribunal of three independent judges for the Arbitration Court bench, and an extension of the pensions system, with greater liberality as a cardinal principle. After his address in the Town Hall Mr. Taylor made way for Mr. Hall Skelton, who said the whole structure of community life was crumbling through a system introduced by legislators who did not know their jobs*