FREE SPEECH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 211, 6 August 1937, Page 6

FREE SPEECH.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Freedom of speech is one of the so-called ideals of Labour. Evidently theory and practice are not related too closely in the minds of some Labour enthusiasts, judging from the disgraceful “baiting” last Monday evening. What a contrast was afforded by two political meetings in our city this week —Mr Ormond Wilson’s on Thursday evening and Mr Adam Hamilton’s on Monday last. On the Monday evening many hundreds of electors, some of whom had come a considerable distance, attended the Opera House to hear an address by the leader of the New Zealand National Party-, who is officially leader of the Opposition in our Parliament. What did they hear? A speaker who had to shout his speech for an hour and a-half, despite his good-humoured appeals for a “fair go.” Many of the audience could hear but little of the speaker’s remarks. Labour enthusiasts in various parts of the chamber, a small number only, deliberately set out to ruin the address, an utterly disgraceful procedure. Fair interjection is appreciated by speakers and audiences; but a continuous howling and caterwauling as heard on Monday last is “over the odds.” That people capable of such a display have votes is a misfortune of our democracy. It is to the credit of those “on the other side” that their sense of fair play prevents them from taking reprisals in kind. In my memory no Labour speaker has ever had a “real doing” by opponents of his views in this city.—l am. etc., TRITE BELIEVER IN FREEDOM OF SPEECH.