HUSTLED AND JOSTLED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3034, 3 November 1908, Page 5

HUSTLED AND JOSTLED.

PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATE ROUGHLY HANDLED. HUNTED UP AND DOWN THE STREETS. FIREWORKS AND ROTTEN t EGGS. BY TEI.KG ItAl'U —I'RRSS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, November 2. An elderly mar named J. W. Taylor, an M.A., who is a candidate for the City Central seat, received a rough handling to-night at the hands of a large mob, in which the hoodlum element was very prominent. Mr Taylor had givsn it forth that he would speak at St. James' Hall, but when he and a crowd of would-be listenars arrived thera admission was denied them. Thd candidate thereupon announced his intention of speaking at a street corner in the neighbourhood, and started off in that direction. The mob then took charge ot the proceedings. The luckless Taylor was hustled and jostled about the roadway for half an hour, every now and then missiles struck him, and he turned and lashed out at his tormentors. They only grew the more persistent. N However, after a: stormy passage, Taylor reached a private verandah, and was just starting his speech from there when the occupier of the house ejected him. He was hunted up and down the streets again until he took refuge in the Fire Brigade Station, and gained the back yard, j The crowd stormed the fence and were driven back by a promptly applied hose. After a lull of a quarter of an hour the candidate was ordered off the premises, he and a few of his supporters being hurried on their way by the hose. The candidate fled down a side street, the mob following. He tried to speak, but fireworks and rotten eggs beuan to fly, and he was chased into Karangahake Road. He sheltered in a hotel, on leaving which by the back entrance he was again assailed by the unruly mob. By this time Taylor was bleeding from a cut over the eye, and appeared desperately frightened. The crowd, however, continued to escort him, hustling him all the way to his boarding-house, and only dispersed when it was found that the hu/.ted man had gone to bed. The police intervened once or : twice, but no arrests were made.