WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3355, 6 December 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

MR PIRANI'S CAMPAIGN. ANOTHER DISORDERLY MEETING. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Dec. 5. Mr Pirani's announcement that he had made arrangements by which he would secure a hearing at the Alexandra Hall last night filled the building to overflowing half an hour before the time fixed for the commencement of the proceedings. A number of policemen were in attendance, but the candidate for Wellington Central got only half through an introductory sentence before he was stopped by one of the foremost of the rowdies and from that out a fusilade of interruptions was kept going with only momentary intermissions. The noise and disorder went on for nearly a couple of hours and it was only just before he left the platform that Mr Pirani wa s allowed to speak a few consecutive words. Two or three of the more conspicious' offenders after disregarding the warings of the candidate were removed by the police and it is understood to-day that legal proceedings are b'eing taken against them.

LABOUR PARTY DISCLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY.

The leaders of the Official Labour Party disclaim responsibility for the disgraceful happenings in the consti- ! tuency. They admit they have not discouraged their followers from attending Mr Pirani's meetings or from offering reasonable comments upon what he has to say; but they repudiate all association with any attempt to prevent the candidate being heard. "Freedom of speech," they say, "is the right of every man, and the workers would be the last to deny it to their opponents." But these fair professions do not tally with the behaviour of the Labour sympathisers who appear at every meeting held by Mr Pirani and take good care the candidate does not get the varied liberty their leaders extol. Th'e truth of the matter seems to be that the Labour leaders have turned their supporters loose and now are unable to control them. They must, realise themselves that those discreditable demonstration? are doing their cause no good. MR MASSEY AT CHRISTCHURCH. There is a disposition here to attribute the failure of the Prime Minister's meeting in Christchurch to a lack of tact on the part of Dr Thacker, the Mayor of the city, who certainly was somewhat unfortunate in his method of introducing his guest to the great audience. But party feeling, having been' denied expression during the course of the war, i s a bit out of hand just now' and is bound to have its flingsIt is expected that after his experience last night Mr Massey will not be anxious to waste another evening in attempting to address a city audience, but Sir Joseph Ward is booked to speak in the Wellington Town Hall on 'the Tuesday before the election and before that may address a meeting in Auckland. The intensity of the tussle between the parties may be judged from the fact that only the leaders appear able to get away from their own constituencies. THE NEW BLOOD.

The Evening Post in deploring the absence of new blood from the hustings in the present election campaign pays a delicate tribute to three figures in the public life of the Dominion it probably would not count among its political friends. "Parliamentary life." it says, "is elevated by men of calibre, even if they be of diverse temperaments', diverse gifts, and different parties. Thomas Taylor (deceased), John Hutcheson, and Sir John Findlay can only be bracketed because they possessed or possess qualties of heart or of brain—or both —out of the common." And looking around for their possible successors it points to Colonel Mitchell, the Independent Liberal candidate for Wellington South, and Mr Dunbar Sloane, the Liberal candidate for Wellington suburbs, as promising young men among a lost of mediocrities.