Labour and the Government.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20587, 1 July 1932, Page 10

Labour and the Government.

Mr H. E. Holland's speech in Auckland, reported in The Press yesterday, was meant as an attack on the Government; yet his criticisms are so weak

and confused that, as from him, they sound more like compliments. He argued, for instance, that because the Government had " put through legisla- " tion that had not been mentioned "during the election campaign," it should now resign and invite the electors to pronounce on these measures. Even in normal times it would be strange to hear an experienced politician arguing that a Government should pass only such measures as had previously been approved by the electors. In a time such as the present, when the future is as dark as it is uncertain, the argument is absurd, and particularly absurd in Mr Holland's case because in the last election campaign his own Party adroitly sidestepped almost every important issue. Mr Holland is even less impressive when he complains that there is no Labour member on the New Zealand delegation to Ottawa, which means, he says, that "a quarter of a million "people who had voted for Labour "members were not represented."' The Ottawa Conference is a conference of Governments, whose task will be difficult enough without the various delegations bringing their domestic politics with them. Logically and in fact the Labour Party has no more right to a representative on the New Zealand delegation than it has to a portfolio in the Cabinet.