JEERS AND CATCALLS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 656, 7 May 1929, Page 7

JEERS AND CATCALLS

Rowdy Town Hall Meeting POLICE AID CALLED IN pOR over three hours 1,000 people in the Town Hall Con- * cert Chamber made a great noise with cheering, hooting, and heckling last evening when addresses on the transport loans were given by Messrs. J. R. Lundon a id W. H. Murray. I he speakers received a very mixed hearing, and the aid of the police had to be called in to deal with persistent interrupters The pandemonium which arose at first was added to when Mr. J. A. C. Allum, late chairman of the Transport Board, arrived in the middle of the evening. It was one of the wildest meetings in Auckland’s civic history, and the crowd at times resembled a howling mob.

JgEFORE letting Mr. Murray speak, Mr. Lundon told the audience of a decision by a meeting of 2,000 workers on Sunday evening, that Mr. J. A. C. Allum should be allowed to be present at the meeting, and that Mr. G. Lang, representing the meeting, should go on the platform. Was Mr. Allum present? No answer. A Voice (evidently Mr. Lang's): What did you say to me on the telephone? You said you wouldn't give him half a minute. Mr. Lundon: I did. I did. This remark did not meet with the approval of the meeting, which laughed, yelled, counted him out, and interjected incoherently and enthusiastically. Mr. Lundon stuck to his guns, thanked the voters of Auckland for the testimonial they had given him at the poll, was applauded, denied that he advertised himself, was derided, and aroused cynical laughter when he denied that he would be a stormy petrel on the City Council. One persistent interjector, “Jim" by name, was howled down, but later the audience grew restive about Mr. Lundon's references to his nomination by the Rev. Jasper Calder, and a plaintive voice asked him to tell what he knew about transport.

Cheers greeted an announcement that the crowd was composed of Auckland citizens and not hoodlums. Later, uproar broke out again, and the audience turned deaf ears to Mr. Murray’s appeals. Amid hooting, he called in the aid of a couple of policemen. “Jim” was warned, but not suppressed. “SOB STUFF” An invitation to the interjectors to subscribe to the Rev. Jasper Calder’s mission was spurned, amid cries of “sob stuff.” One woman screamed loudly. Collectors for the mission, however, took round the box to the strains of “Tell Me the Old. Old Story.” The coins rattled in. and later it was announced that £6 6s 5d had been collected. After a while Mr. Lundon took up the scattered threads of his discourse and faced the barrage again. Once more he invited Mr. Allum to the platform, and once more he received no answer. The audience obliged with a little more cross-talk with Mr. Lundon, who said that the members of the Transport Board had not held meetings to acquaint the public with details of the proposed loans. Once more the crowd differed, and once more Mr. Murray uttered a warning, supported by a policeman. When Mr. Lundon had finished. Mr. Murray rose amid cheers and interjections. He appealed to the audience's British sense of fair-play, and urged interjectors who did not like his speech to get out. After a comparative calm, the heckler was loud in the land until one fog-horn voice appealed to the rowdy ones to “shut up.” The row continued, and the noisy ones differed when Mr. Murray denied responsibility for a pamphlet urging ratepayers to turn down transport loans. REMOVED BY POLICE “Oh, shut up! Shut up!” said Mr. Murray, despairingly. Finally he pointed dramatically to an earnest heckler in the centre of the hall. A policeman made his way from the rear of the room and removed him to the tune of hoots and jeers. References to the domineering attitude of the City Council in regard to the Transport Board were not well received, although there were cheers for Mr. Murray s appeal for a democratic election of the city’s six members on the Transport Board. Mr. Murray criticised the tramway authorities for failure to spend a loan of £280,000 authorised by the ratepayers for itemised expenditure. Of the loan about £160,000 had been spent on the Gaunt Street depot. To adjust the position a validating Act had been put through Parliament. | A wild burst of cheering cut Mr.) Murray’s speech asunder, and Mr.; Allum walked up the aisle to the plat-

form. Led by “Jim,” the audience gave three hearty cheers. Heavy weather was struck by Mr. Allum in the opening of his speech, but Mr. Murray appealed for a fair hearing, and the pandemonium subsided somewhat. “My message to you,” shouted Mr. Allum, “is that it is in your own interest to support the important undertaking before you. If you, want to preserve your £2,000,000 which is invested, go to the poll and record your vote for the loan. The proposals have been approved by the Transport Commission of last year, the Treasury, the Public Works Department, and the Local Government Loans Board.” The Loans Board had vetoed a loan purely for buses, hut the Transport Board would continue to buy buses. “I SMELL BENZINE” “l believe in private enterprise,” said Mr. Allum vehemently, amid hooting, “but I’m not a fool.” (Cheers.) “I am not going to be intimidated by a small section of the community. I smell benzine, and 1 don’t like it!” (Applause). There were cheers when he sat down. In answer to an appeal for another member of the Transport Board to speak, Mr. F. S. Morton took the platform. His speech was punctuated with applause and jeers. As a minority man on the board, Mr. Morton said that Mr. Allum should have thought about the unemployment question some time ago. (Wild applause.) “We have a monopoly of transport,” he said, “yet It is a standing disgrace to think that we are not making a profit.” (Hisses and yells.) He criticised the high wage-bill of the board, which averaged £6 a week a man. Mr. Allum: I’m proud of it! Facing volleys of interjections, Mr. Morton suggested trackless cars for Point Chevalier. He spoke of vested interests and outside influence in the drawing-tip of the extensions. “Jim” was on the job when Mr. Murray rose again, but was howled down. Mr. Murray said that the first £9OO profit made by the Transport Board was spent on raising the salaries of the higher-paid officials, who had scarcely been “ten minutes” in business and had not had a chance to prove their ability, Mr. Murray finished his speech amid an uproar. Mingled cheers and jeers were the feature of question time for Mr. Allum, who had to shout to make himself heard. There were cat-oalls in addition to the general noise. The crowd at this stage could be fairly characterised as a howling mob. A Voice: If the loan is carried would you be prepared to take the chairmanship of the board again? MR. ALLUM’S RESIGNATION Mr. Allum: My resignation is in the hands of the Mayor, because it was the City Council that sent me and the City Council which will withdraw me. The crowd howled madly and stamped and screamed when, answering a woman who asked whether he would give his services free or take a salary, Mr. Allum said, “That is not a question! That’s an insult!” Mr. Lundon claimed that the Mayor of Auckland was not the person to receive a resignation from the Transport Board, but under the Act the resignation had to be handed to the chairman of the board or the secretary. Had Mj. Allum done that? A thunder of voices: No! “Sending the resignation to the Mayor of Auckland is all eye-wash,” he said, “and no man knows it better than Mr. Allum.” Mr. Lundon went on to discuss the counter report and Mr. Allum’s connection therewith. When the speaker was discussing Mr. Allum’s part in the commission, and characterised one statement as a lie, the audience went wild again. First, Mr. Lundon was counted out, then Mr. Allum, who tried vainly to speak, and lastly Mr. Murray. The rowdy element now had got almost beyond control, and the noise lasted for some minutes before Mr. Allum on the appeal of Mr. Lundon was given a hearing. He explained that h« had been misreported concerning evidence at the commission. A reading of Hansard reports by Mr. Luudon evidently had a soporific effect on the audience for it grew quiet, and people started out in search of trams, for 11 p.m. had passed. The meeting ended in orderly fashion at 11.15.

*T. Blood worth •• •• 15.3«1 1 »K. \V. Inder 8 - 8 ? 8 S",c- • J. B. Johnston . . •• S,7o‘- 8 - 4 *' UNSUCCESSFUL „,• T rt.997 6.S76 j. B. Paterson J. R. Lundon . . A. E. Glover . • W. A. Thompson ; ; . 6,353 6,113 . 6,224 6.083 . 5.413 5,309 , 5,318 5,174 . 4,802 4.662 Informal . 1,402