PARTIES AND WAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 87, 14 April 1931, Page 6

PARTIES AND WAGES.

REFORM'S ATTITUDE IN PARLIAMENT, (To the Editor.) A letter bearing the signature "Public Servant" is now going the rounds of the NewZealand newspapers. More than a week a«o it appeared in certain journals in the South. This week it makes its appearance in the North! It is clearly the Reform party's effort to extricate itself from the position in. which it has been landed by its own faulty tactics. No public servant would have been so badly informed as to make himself responsible for the statements contained in the letter referred to. Those who, like myself, had the privilege of sitting in the galleries when the incident occurred will know how wide of the mark is this peculiar "Public Servant." Here are the facts: Mr. Coates stated that cuts were inevitable and urged that some relief should be provided for married men with less than £300 a year. He suggested the percentage reduction mentioned in the letter. Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour party, ur<*ed Mr. Coates to put his suggestion into the form, of an amendment and assured him that if he would do so the Labour party would support him. This Mr. Coates refused to do. He pointed out that he was putting it to the Government merely as a suggestion. When Mr. Coates declined to move on the lines of his own proposal, the Labour party framed an amendment embodying what the Leader of the Opposition wanted. Whereupon Mr. Coates and the Reform party went into .the lobby with the Government and voted against their own suggestion. The mendaciousness of the statement that the Labour party prevented Mr. Coates from moving his amendment is apparent when it is remembered that Mr. Coates is entitled to be called upon by the Chair in preference to any member of the Labour party, or any other private member for that matter. H.*GRENFELL HOLLAND.