THE LABOUR LEADER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 86, 13 April 1926, Page 10

THE LABOUR LEADER.

DEMANDS SOME ANSWERS.

T.ME FOR PREMIER TO DECLARE.

A crowded meeting at Point Chevalier accorded the leader of the Parliamentary Labour party (Mr. H. E. Holland) an attentive hearing, there being no interjections.

To-day the ultra-Conservative Government was on its trial, said the speaker. Electors should not be deluded by any criticism of Labour such as had been made by the Reform party. The criticism of the Reform party candidate was not new —it was a rehash of the same old stuff that had been dished up by the Reformers for the past ten years. It was up to the Prime Minister to clear the air with regard to the life of Parliament. Sir James Gunson had declared himself in favour of a five years' term, but the Prime Minister had made no definite declaration of his attitude.

"I want Mr. Coates to tell the people where he stands in this matter, and he will have an opportunity of doing it to-morrow night," continued Mr. Holland. "The point is that three years is quite long enough for any Parliament to live without giving the people an opportunity to pronounce upon its stewardship. Mr. Coates should also explain regarding the partisanship of his Government in regard to the censorship of literature. It was a most absurd thing to find that certain books which circulated in Great Britain, Canada. Africa, and Australia were prohibited in New Zealand."

Labour did not retreat from its social objective, said Mr. Holland. The social idea must prevail. If Reformers were intelligently honest in their declaration against social legislation they were committing themselves to the destruction of the Public Trust Office, the State Advances Department, the State Fire Insurance, the State coal mines, the railways, hydro-electric schemes and the post office. They would not dare destroy any of these.

The day had gone. when the public could be content with vague generalisations. A clear and definite pronouncement with regard to the motherhood endowment should be demanded from Mr. Coates.

The meeting accorded Mr. Holland a vote of thanks and expressed its confidence in him as the leader of the Labour party.