"CARPING CRITICISM."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 222, 19 September 1930, Page 5

"CARPING CRITICISM."

MR. CGATES ATTACKED. FORMER SUPPORTER'S VIEWS CAUSE OF "RATI.WAY LOSSES. {By. TelejrspS.—Parllaijaeiitary Ueportsr.) WELLINGTON, Thsrsdav. I I Farther evidence thai the support j which Mr. W. F. Lyaaar (Gisborne) j has in tie past aec-orded the Reform | party is diminishing. was famished in! the House to-night when he Trenchantly! attacked the Ri. Hon.. J. G. Coates.! Leader of the Opposition, for the aiti-' tilde Mr. Coaxes had adopted concerning the railways. ~T deplore and resret the speech that; we have heard, from the Leader of the Opposition," said Mr. Lysnar, "and I take this opportunity of deprecating I very strongly the railway question being made a party question, as Mr. Coates apparently desires to make it. Mr. Coates ridiculed the attitude of the Minister of Railways, and belittled the committees and commissions that; have been set up. Who, would I ask, : has been the cause : of those committees : and commissions' being set up, other than the Leader of the Reform party? : Mr. Coates brought i forward a no-con-fidence motion lastsession on a question asking that all railway construction work should be stopped, and he extracted from the' then Prime Minister a promise that- he would have these inquiries made, and now he ..ridicules it. I trust that the present Government will not be stampeded into taking any special course as the result of what might be said by the Leader of the Reform party. As has been rightly j said, the Leader of the Reform party has practically been responsible for the position that we are placed in to-day." Mr. Coates* Costly Schemes. Mr. Lysnar asked why Mr. Coates had not inquired into the question of railway construction when he was in oSce, instead of launching out on costly schemes that would bring no return to the Department. Hi; present attitude was illogical and unreasonable. Were not all the railwav construction schemes

which caused him so much anxiety the very schemes that were authorised by his own party? "I do deprecate and take strong exception to party capital being made out of an important question such as this," Mr. Lysnar repeated. "I do not like the attitude taken up by the Leader of the Reform'party, a party to which I have been trying to give all the support I can. There are two members of the party laughing, I am glad to see that the laughter is confined to two, but the honourable members know how I have treated the Reform party in the past, and how little it has done towards meeting the main issues. It is a question, too, as to how far its actions have been responsible for the trouble in the Dominion at the present time. Should be a Free of Party. '•"However, I say that as far as I am concerned,! will on every possible occasion take strong exception to any party spirit entering into discussions on' a problem such as that which we have before us. The question should be approached free of party altogether, and for the good of the country carping criticism will do no good. We must get down to bedrock, down to fundamentals, and deal with the question in the proper way."