LABOUR STRATEGY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 50, 28 February 1923, Page 4

LABOUR STRATEGY.

EXPOSURE BY MR. WILFORD. "THE COM3_o!f FEAR.-, COMMENT OX PARTY SITCAHOS. (By Te:!_raf--spe«!a! to "-•_«_' U-AVERLEY. "Tuesday' Mr. T. 3! YV.lfoH. Leader of t_.fr. position, attended a social gathering! honour of Mr i orrigan. _u>n>h« { ° fa tea. last m? ht. and rnidt observstio., on the political situation, with reterence to rh. happenings of the la,. few days After paying glowing tribme to the late > lr \\ m Eerries.Mr. \Vilf,_ r( _ referred to the Dominion as being «« country in travail, and requiring t strong, virile party to nut its affairs into order" "ft is certain,"' he said, "thit in the long r"n Conservatism by its... can never be a sufficient barrier "against Socialism, while all citizens realise thit you cannot better trade by bombing it We want tranquilitv in business now that the war is over "

Liberalism, he believed, without _-. treme Labour pressure, would be the mest determined and searching agent of economy, and the "steadier' that * ls needed to-day of the Reform party. He suggested that there was an eternal law of displacement and replacement which could not be suspended in favour of that part-v, which must, like evennation, pass through the three stages of rise, meridian, and fall. If a Government became a law unto itself—and th* Reform party had been that in the past —then all clear thinking and good jud*. ment became impaired.

SUPER-MEN" AND SUPER-MESSES."

"'We want no super-men," continned Mr. Wilford, "for most super-men, when they make a mess of Government n_,ke a super-mess. We must take Russia s_ an example of what to avoid. There »» see a country which can fight though its people are starving. There we gee an army of 1.300000, well equipped, though children have no shoes. Though I have no talent for hatred, I detest Sovietisro and all its ways. The duty of leadership to-day is to pluck hope out of disaster, for if we are not very careful we will find trouble near it hand."

THE LABOUR I-TvTTAHC-T. Mr. Wilford went on to remark that Mr. Holland, Leader of the extrema Labour party, had been praised frequently by the Prime Minister, while both Reform and Labour joined hands in denouncing the Liberals. "What," lie asked, "is the common fear of both! Is it fear of political extinction at the hands of the Liberal sentiment of the «__• try? I read Mr. Holland's advice last week to Liberals to join Reform. Thit surely was a blunder. The electors at Kew Zealand will hardly believe thit any advice he gives to Liberals, can be for their good. If he advises Libersto join the Reformers, I would ask if that advice was for the benefit of lis party or for the Liberals? If it in to help Mr. Holland's party—and that," suggested Mr. Wilford, "must be his object—then it was time the electors put on their thinking caps, and asked how can the Liberals, by joining ths Reformers, help Mr. Holland's party? Surely Mr. Holland must believe thit if this occurred, then all the votes which had supported Liberal members conH not follow their leaders after the joining;

"Mr. Holland must have believed that many of the electors who voted against Mr. Massey last December would CO* tinue to do so, and under the con&itiohe was inviting the Liberals to bring about, these electors would have nobody to support but extreme Labour eandi" dates.

"This.'' continued Mr. Wilford, "is » most important position, which must ba considered, and in that connection ~» must ask ourselves whether those el«----tors who voted Liberal voted against the Prime Minister personally or his Government as a party. THE NEXT GOVERNMENT. "I advise the people of New ZealanJ to remember that while Liberalism w mains a tiower in the land, the ptrty led by Mr. Holland can never hope to be 'the next Government.' Though directly Liberalism dies, or becomes absorbed under the name of Reform, the party W by. Mr. Holland becomes the next Gov* ernment,' which I am sure neither Mr. Massey nor his supporters desire. ™ this country needs" to-day is an adofflistration in'which the majority of pwp» have confidence. The majority of peop» have not confidence in the present «' ministration, as the elections i-oww. Does this spell prosperity or even tra* quility? I think not. How can an siministration be obtained in which tM majority of people have not confidence. That is the question of the hour, ana 1 shall not be backward in helping W obtain such an administration if it <«° be evolved." ..,, The Opposition leader concluded "™ reference" "to the incidences of taxation, with special application to the fanning community, the moratorium, neav charges on producers through Compaq taxation, and increased cost of living-ana unemployment caused thereby.