"EXTREME DISCOURTESY”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1006, 24 June 1930, Page 10

"EXTREME DISCOURTESY”

MINISTER’S OPINION OF SPEECH AT SOCIAL DISCUSSION ON POLITICS From our oxen Correspondent XELSOX, Today. “It is putting Ministers of the Crown in an invidious position and making it difficult, if not impossble, for them to attend social functions of this kind if they, or other guests, are to bo subjected to such extreme discourtesy/' said the Hon. 31. Atmore, Minister of Education, after listening for three-quai'ters of an hour to an address on politics and departmental subjects by Mr. J. 11. McKenzie, Dominion secretary of the Post and Telegraph Association, at the annual social and reunion of post and telegraph officials held at Nelson on Saturday evening. Air. Atmore then left the social, to which he had been invited as guest. It had previously been arranged, in order that there might be plenty of time for dancing before midnight, that the speeches should be limited to five minutes. The chairman. Air. Pinkham, Arr. Atmore himself, and several other speakers, each spoke within this limit. When Air. McKenzie rose to answer the toast of the association, he remarked that he was sorry to strike a discordant note and then launched out into a discussion of politics and departmental affairs in which he attacked the Government and Parliament.

As soon as he had finished Air. Atmore rose. lie had a long way to go that night, he said, and must soon leave. He had been through an experience unique in his public life. He had been pleased to accept the invitation to be a guest that evening at a social reunion and he fully understood the reason for the time-limit which had been imposed on the speakers.

But after that arrangement had been made he had been compelled to listen for three-quarters of an hour to what was largely a tirade against the Government. If Alinisters of the Crown were to be subject to such extreme discourtesy it would be impossible for them to attend such functions in future.