PARTY'S SORROW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 238, 9 October 1933, Page 9

PARTY'S SORROW.

LOSS IRREPARABLE.

In the words of. Mr. F. Langstone, M.P., national president of the New Zealand Labour party, "members are stunned by the sudden and tragic death of their leader and the irreparable lose his death will mean to the Labour movement in New Zealand and to the Parliament of the country."

Mr. Langstone adds: "We mourn the loss of our great leader and our hearts go out in sympathy to his wife and family and his large circle of friends. Mr. Holland's great capacity for work, his high. regard for principles and his comprehensive knowledge made him an ideal leader and commanded for him the deep loyalty and affection of his followers."

Other tributes from the party are as under:— A Great Shock. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., deputyleader:— "By his lifelong battle in Australia and New Zealand, both industrially and politically, in the interests of Labour, Mr. Holland made himself a well-known figure in both countries. I think there is no room for doubt that Mr. Holland's untiring activities hastened his end. During his leadership of the Labour party he was known for his capacity for hard work, and with opponents and friends alike his word was his bond. His death leaves a gap in the ranks that will be hard to fill. Members of the party always placed implicit trust in him as leader, and to them all his loss has come as a great shock."

Personal Tragedy. Mr. P. Fraser, M.P., secretary of the Parliamentary Labour party: — "I cannot adequately indicate what Mr. Holland meant to the Labour party °r what the Labour party meant to him. He lived every minute of his life for the cause of Labour. Its ideals, principles and objective were a passion with him. He dedicated his life to the cause he loved, and without doubt his H a ys were shortened by his self-sacri-ficing devotion. Mr. Holland was one °f the ablest of New Zealand's statesmen. The welfare of the Dominion and °f its citizens as a whole was always uppermost in his mind. The Labour

movement has suffered a severe blow in the untimely loss of its beloved leader and of its greatest figure. To those of Us who worked with him . . . and who valued him as a friend and comrade, l> is loss is a personal tragedy."