WAIRARAPA SEAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 October 1938, Page 7

WAIRARAPA SEAT

4 MR J. F. THOMPSON’S CAMPAIGN MEETINGS AT TUTURUMURI AND FEATHERSON (“Times-Age” Special) Practically every settler of the district was represented at a meeting addressed by Mr J. F. Thompson,, National Party candidate for the Wairarapa seat, at Tuturumuri, on Monday afternoon. Mr G. H. Hardy occupied the chair, and, at the conclusion of the address, a vote of thanks and confidence in the speaker and the National Party was, on the motion of Mr P. Broderick, seconded by Mr W. Wagg, carried unanimously. The attendance at the Featherston' Town" Hall on Monday night was the largest addressed by any speaker during the present campaign, and Mr Thompson received a rousing reception. Mrs D. Riddiford, on behalf of the ladies of the local branch of the National Party, asked Mr Thompson to accept a posy for Mrs Thompson, or, as she said, the wife of the future member for the Wairarapa. Mr J. W. Card (mayor) occupied the chair, and, in introducing the candidate, made eulogistic and generous reference to the part played by Mr Thompson in sporting and public body affairs. He said that Mr Thompson was a young New Zealander, born in a district that had produced such statesmen as the late Richard John Seddon and Sir Arthur Guinness. Mr Thompson, who was received with loud applause, thanked Mr Card for his laudatory remarks. Up to the present the fight had been a clean one, and he referred with regret to an incident that had occurred at Featherston during Saturday night, when the front of an office occupied by Mr Kenward, the organising secretary of the Labour Parly, 'was bespattered by eggs and advertising matter damaged. Mr Thompson said he did not stand for that kind of thing, nor did the executive committee of the National Party, and they had informed Mr Kenward to that effect. He would tell those concerned that he did not want the votes of despoilers. (Applause). Labour, said Mr Thompson was disproportionately paid, and the National Party intended to give the whole of the workers of this country a square deal. They were not getting it from the present Government. In answer to an interjector, who said that wages were cut to 10s a week during the slump. Mr Thompson asked why the Labour members in Parliament then had failed to offer assistance to the workers by suggesting a way whereby wages could be kept up. If they did not want to divulge the panacea they claimed now to possess, then they deliberately let the worker down and contributed to his suffering. Employers of labour on the Government side made no attempt to keep wages up, and they cut when the others cut. Although there were some interjections from a section of the audience standing at the hall door, the meeting was orderly, and, at the conclusion the speaker was accorded a vote of thanks, on the motion of Mr C. J. Nix.