GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 135, 9 June 1926, Page 11

GOVERNMENT CHALLENGED.

MR. HOLLAND'S INDICTMENT.

THE RIGHT TO WORK.

GARRULOUS SIR JAMES. ,,

(Br Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WESTPORT, Tuesday.

Ihe Leader of the Labour party, Mr. H. E. Holland, delivered a pre-sessional address last night. He said the opening of the present Parliament would mark a new era in New Zealand politics, since for the first time in the Dominion's history the Labour party would occupy the official Opposition benches. He thought the Liberal or National party •β-ould rapidly disappear, its official elements drifting into the Reform camp, and the .radical section of its rank and file going to the Labour party.

Continuing, he dealt at some length with the question of unemployment, which he said was becoming a very real problem. Every man able and -grilling to work was entitled to demand employment, and when private capitalism broke down to the extent that it left willing workers unemployed it was the duty of the State to see that work was found. The science of government consisted in making and administering the laws in 'such a way to accord to every citizen equality of opportunity in this respect. Ever since there had been a Labour movement it had demanded work at standard wages for men who were involuntarily unemployed. Work so found Eiiould be reproductive, and of economic value, otherwise it w»s not worth doing. When Mr. Coates arrogantly told unemployed workers they would not get standard wages, but in effect only what the Government chose to give them he was not only offering an insult to the men, but, by implication, was flouting the Court, which fixed the standard by law.

Mr. Holland said lie strongly resented the charges made by the Prime Minister and the Hon. A. D. McLeod that Labour members who sought to find work for unemployed citizens were only doing it for political party purposes. *On the contrary, they were acting consistently with the well-established right to work, a principle of the Labour movement, and the Government was not to be permitted to escape from the consequences of its own ineptitude by the use of a worn-out cry of that sort.

He declared the Opposition would challenge the Government on its action in sending to the Legislativt Council '"renegade liberals," whose appointment was a reward for having held the Reform Government in office after it had been defeated by the votes of the people in 1922. They would challenge the Government on their action in heavily raising the rate of interest on State advances loans, on their penalising public servants who stood as Parliamentary candidates by only permitting them to return to work at reduced wages, on their continued dishonouring of the Labour clauses of the Peace Treaty, and on the censorship of literature, uncensored in all, or nearly all, other British countries and partisan administration ox the law in connection with the censorship. They would also strenuously object to the High Commissionership being used as a plum to be given to * Government supporter, irrespective of his qualifications for the office. Sir James Parr's garrulous propensities were let loose as soon as he landed in London, and he had already called forth a rebuke from the Agent-General for Western Australia because of misrepresentation with respect to group settlement in Australia.

In conclusion, Mr. Holland made lengthy reference to incidents connected with the Geneva protocol and the Security Pact, and declared that the Opposition would stand for both Parliament and the people being consulted before being committed to any policy of Imperial or international import.