THE TAUMARUNUI SEAT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 4 December 1914, Page 6

THE TAUMARUNUI SEAT.

To the Editor, It is quite evident that your correspondent, Mr Walter W. Jones, does not know very much about political meetings when he infers that because some heckling took place at ,Awitkino when the Reform candidate spoke there, that such was premeditated. Surely he is not so guileless to think than any speaker can get up on the platform and make statements that his hearers do not agree with and expect them to take it all without a protest. This is an age when every man has a right to reason for himself, and it is only by making the protest when inaccuracies are given that he can make himself heard. It is wonderful the different view Reformers have when their candidates are speaking and happen to be heckled as against the time the opposing candidate receives the same treatment. It was a very fine performance three years g.go to put up such a disgraceful scene when Sir Joseph Ward who was then Prime Minister, spoke' at Dannevirke, and was practically hooted off the stage by Reformers. Reformers then said the thing was quite right and creditable, but when some mild protest is made against tlieir champion, his supporters rush into print as if the Germans were chasing them. If Mr Jones and a few who imbibe only the one brand of politics were to go to a city for a few nights and hear the heckling that goes on from both sides, they would surely think the end of the world had come, and were he to go into the House at timc3, and hear the,,jibes' that are thrown across from member to fnem>er, it is hard to say what he would

think. So far as anyone following - Mr Wilson about, this is news indeed, for j there does not appear to be any necessity for anyone to waste timo in doing bo. His audiences are dealing with him in the. way they think fit in each plafco. I It is peculiar that 4 there was no aocount of Mr Wilson's Mokau meeting when a vote of no-confidenße was carried. Reports of these meetings are apparently not published by the candidate or his supporters, and frequently the size of the meetings are mueli magnified when a report does come through. Instances have already been pointed out, and one other is now to be shown up. It was ptated that Mr Wilson's Aria meeting was one of the largest held at the'place, and at the same time the most enthusiastic. The attendance was some sixteen Reformers out of twenty-fire, the others being Liberals an! Maoris, whilst Mr Jennings had some seventy at his meeting in the same place. Mr Wilson received a bouquet from a lady. I think I will leave it at that. But to return' to Mr Jones and his statebut the invasions and innuendos so frement that Mr Jennings was accorded courteous treatment at Awakino. Of course he was, for the simple reason that those opposed to him could find nothing inaccurate in his statements to object to, which is the reason that he has such gopd hearings wherever he has spoken. It is only the difference between what is said by the candidates and not by any personal feeling whatever. No man will be heckled if he is on the proper ground of rectitude, but tho invasions and inuendos so frequently made by the Reform candidates during the present, as' well as "the last election, naturally cause people to resent them when'made, and this the party do not like. What is said by some of the candidates at their meetings where reporters are present and can tell tho what a candidate says isi uite different to the speech they make when in the country where there are rto reporters. The roads past settlers' properties that are to be roaded whilst wooing the electors are so numerous that with all the supposedly great ability of finance that' Mr Allen possesses, would not go one twentieth part round. For instance, a promise to metal a road right in the backblocks where at present only a six foot track exists was made recently, prior to the evening meeting, with the result that the Reform candidate wa3 presented with a bouquet of flowers. This is the sort of thing that is going on right through, especially in the above named electorate, and when Sir Joseph Ward is returned to power next week he will find that if he has any desire to keep the pledges of his opponnents good to'the- blaekblock settlers, it will require a two million loan to do so. Then those same people will cry out about excessive borrowing, and if he fails to redeem other folks' promises then he is still in trouble. What is a man to do under such circumstances?—l am, etc., AWAKINO.