SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20957, 11 September 1933, Page 12

SUPPORT FOR GOVERNMENT

APPEAL, BY ACTING-PRIME MINISTER LABOUR PARTY'S POLICY ATTACKED An appeal to the Lytlclton. electorate to give the Government its whalehearted support was made by the Act-ing-Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon J. G. Coates) at the conclusion of his speech at Akaroa or> Saturday. "Prices arc improving and there is a definite turn for the better," he said. "But we still do not know what shocks are ahead of us, and we most I urgently need steadiness and stability to carry on the country's affairs. This is not a time lor experimenting, but a time when we must have a cautious, far-sighted policy. We were returned at the last general election to carry out a policy for the country's rehabilitation, and to that extent we ask the press and the people to support what we do. The Government will persist in the policy it has laid out, and I believe we will be the means of leading the country back to prosperity, though that depends, of course, on conditions overseas. "We cannot get on to the platform and make impossible promises. We can only promise honesty of purpose and the definite accomplishment of a definite policy. We ask for your support to complete the task we have undertaken. It is a difficult task, but we intend to carry it through, not to gain the plaudits of the people, but to gain their respect and confidence j by doing our job regardless of political favours and political conse- ! quences." I "Reactionary Labour." Speaking at Opawa on Saturday night, he laid emphasis on the reactionary policy of the Labour party. "On Wednesday next a responsibility rests in your hands," he said. Three cheers for Mrs McCombswere called, and given. Mr Coates: That is a question you have to decide. Voices: We will, too. Mr Coates: If you do that you will not be doing the slightest good to yourself, for the Labour party's policy is reactionary from beginning to end. It is the only reactionary policy in the country. (Uproar.) You don't like to hear that, I know, but you have been speaking to me bluntly, and I will speak to you bluntly. "Give your support to the Government that has stood up to criticism and unpopularity and all manner of reforms that the Labour party has shrunk from," he went on. "The Labour party has not been able to stand up to the requirements of this country." There were mingled boos and cheers. Mr Coates: If you want good, sound, definite advice you will vote for Mr Freeman. The Reform Party. Earlier in his speech the ActingPrime Minister stressed the fact that no better wages and conditions had ever been given to the workers than when the Reform party had been in office. "The last thing our party attempts to do is to deprive any section of the community of its fair share. History reveals that the Conservative element has been responsible for far more advantages for the working classes than any other group. You can go back as far as Disraeli. The present Government in England is now engaged in the great work of rebuilding slum areas. "Don't think our hearts are different because we have a different way of looking at things," said Mr Coates. "There are many examples where the Labour party in power has had to do exactly the same as a Conservative Government —cut its coat according to the cloth. New Zealand has done as much as. and more than any other State in the Empire during the present crisis, and our conditions have been increasingly difficult because we are so completely dependent upon our external markets."