"NOT CONSULTED"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 154, 2 July 1945, Page 3

"NOT CONSULTED"

TAKING OF CENSUS

COMMENT BY MR. HOLLAND

P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, this day. "The acting-Prime Minister, Mr. Nash, knows very well that the Opposition has not even been consulted about the taking of the census this year, and I can only conclude that his statement was intended to mislead the Farmers' Federation and the public, ,, said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, in a statement to-day.

In his exchange of correspondence with the federation, Mr. Nash was reported to have said that the decision of the Government to take a census this year was supported by both sides of the House. A census was due to be taken in 1941, but Mr. Nash himself explained that, because of the shortage of paper and man, power \in the Government Printing Office, it was not possible to take a census that year, said Mr. Holland. Mr. Nash inserted a clause in the Finance Bill of 1940 authorising the taking of a census at any time between 1941 and 1945, and it was always * understood that a census would not be taken during the war period. Both Mr. Nash in 1940 and the Minister of Supply, Mr. Sullivan, in 1943, publicly stated that it was unlikely that a census would be taken during the war. In the same Finance Bill, Mr. Nash inserted an additional provision that a census must be taken during 1946. False Picture Likely Surely it was madness to think of having a census in 1945 and another in 1946, commented Mr. Holland, specially when so many thousands of persons were living away from their normal places of residence. The concentartion of large numbers in North Island industrial areas, solely due to the exigencies of the war, and work people being manpowered to the North Island, would create an entirely false picture of the distribution of population if a census was taken before they returned to their homes. "And there is the possibility of the South Island losing seats which, it is fairly entitled to hold," said Mr. Holland. "It is perfectly obvious that the holding of a census this year is intended to bring about a re-distribution of . Parliamentary seats and a revision of electoral boundaries, with the likelihood of reducing the South Island country representation and increasing the representation of North Island built-up industrial areas, thus giving the Labour party a somewhat better chance of hanging on to office."

Mr. Nash would say that because there was no division on the particular clause of the Finance Bill that the Opposition supported the proposal. That was quite ridiculous, as hundreds of clauses in bills to which the Opposition had been opposed had gone through without a division. Mr. Nash knew that perfectly well.