TOO MUCH 'HARPING'

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 58, 9 March 1944, Page 4

TOO MUCH 'HARPING'

CRITICISM DENOUNCED

EFFORT IN N.Z. INDUSTRY

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day.

This was not the time for complaining but for action, in accordance with the true British spirit, said Mr. Lowry (Govt., Otaki), when he spoke in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. The Government had been charged with over-committing the country, he said.

Many of those who complained of the country being over-committed to-day, he said, had brought tremendous pressure on the Government to introduce conscription. A heavy responsibility rested on the members of Parliament. They must sink all their personal interests and devote themselves to the task of winning the war.

Referring to the remarks made by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, concerning the retention of men in industry, Mr. Lowry said lie agreed with Brigadier Inglis that it was not a question of men taking turns, but a question of where the country could best benefit by their services.

Dealing with industrial troubles, Mr. Lowry said he was dismayed over the stoppages, but did not think the solution of the difficulty Avas imprisonment of the men. That would not provide the essential things required. He thought it unwise to keep of criticising and harping on the shortcomings of the men. It was said that the trouble was caused by 5 per cent of the workers. Would the members of the Opposition claim that the primary producers were 100 per cent perfect? What could one expect when the member for Waikato told the dairy farmers that the Government could not have, and would not get, the goodwill of the dairy farmer until the Government handed back to the producers control of their produce? he asked. It seemed that, in spite of all that had been done for the farmers, some of them, as soon as they began to feel a certain amount of stability, were out to attack their benefactors.