AUCKLAND BY-ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 52, 10 June 1910, Page 5

AUCKLAND BY-ELECTION.

CANDIDATES' SPEECHES. , LABOR MAN BKEAKS DDW'.N. By Telegraph—Press Association, J Auckland, Last Night. 1 Mr. R. W. Hill, the Opposition candidate, in the course of his address at Newton, said he was in favor of prohibi-l tion and 'believed in the bare majority. Regarding Native land, he said that the recent Commission was almost entirely ,pro-Maori. Regarding the gambling evii, lie said the best way to deal with the •bookmaker was to abolish, the licensing system of the present Government and to create the offence of "habitually betting as a means of support." A man charged with it could escape imprisonment by showing that lie had ample .property to live on. He favored the abolition of the totalisator. He "was not in favor of continuing the taxation of £200,000 per annum on the race-going people for the sake of the totalisator. Let owners pay for their own sport. In the course of a speech to-night, Mr. Arthur Myers referred to the statements that had been made to the effect that because he ivas a brewer he could not be entrusted to look after .private interests. He indignantly denied this, and said that when he was Mayor of Auckland he had never allowed his private interests in any way to interfere with his public duties. He challenged anyone, to prove to the contrary. He said that if elected .his duties a* their representative would always come first. Tn reply to a question, he said that he was in favor of allowing the liquor question to be settled by the vote of the people every three years as already provided. Mi', McKnight, one of the Labor candidates, addressing a meeting of electors to-night, described himself as a true Laborite, and denied the statement that had been made that he was not in favor of preference to unionists. He complained of having 'been badly treated by a section of Labor that had, after selecting him, withdrawn their support and .put up a separate candidate. At the first ballot, a private one, attended toy eight delegates, he had been selected. Then the wire-pulling began, and because it was held that the meeting which chose him was not large or representative enough, he had, with the other candidates, placed himself in the hands of a fully representative meeting, and had ibeen again selected, this time by a majority of 3!). The committee which had put up the second Labor candidate (Mr. Davis) was only a scratch one, and had no authority to take the action it had. He complained strongly of Mr. T. K Taylor's interference. In addressing a meeting in the Orange Hall at Newton to-night, Mr. Georsje Davis, one of the Labor candidates, after speaking for a few minutes, broke down. He confessed that he did not at home, and stated that on many occasions :he had admitted that he was not cut out for a politician. —(A voice: "You're too honest.")— The candidate was not able to get much further when he broke down altogether, and retired to his seat. ■He will deliver his policy speech in the Choral Hall on Monday evening.