OPPOSITION LEADER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 223, 21 June 1928, Page 9

OPPOSITION LEADER

SPEECH AT AUCKLAND REPLY TO PRIME MINISTER By Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, June 20. Declaring that there had been a big change of feeling since 1925, particularly in the farming districts, Mr. 11. E. Holland, leader of the Parliamentary Opposition, asserted in a speech to a large audience at the Town Hall to-night that there were all the possibilities of a decisive victory for the Labour Party at the elections at the end of this year. Referring to the Prime Minister’s speech at Wellington last week, Mr. Holland commented on the fact that Mr. Coates was on the defensive throughout. Criticising Mr. Coates’s claim that the Government stood for the maintenance of law and order, and justice and liberty, Mr. Holland referred to recent happenings in Samoa. The Chief Justice there was an exparte politician, who had torn ba .’. res off . the coats of the people in the streets and had been fined by the Deputy-Judge for assault, yet that Chief Justice was still allowed to hold of .j in Samoa and dine with persons who had committed less serious offences than he himself. Mr. O. F. Nelso was suspected of committing the political offence of being opposed to the New Zealand Government and the Administrator, and without any form of trial he was banished from his native country for five years. The Government also maintained that it stood for religious liberty, yet it allowed young men with conscientious objections to military training to be hauled before the Courts. The deeply religious views of men and women should be respected. Mr. Coates claimed that the Reform Party stood for free, compulsory and secular education. Mr. Holland termed the claim as one of the most glaring mis-statements ever made by a public man. Only three members of the Reform Party voted for the principle, as the voting on Religious Exercises in Schools Bill last session showed. The Labour Party was the only party which stood solid for that principle. In 1926, when the education estimates were under consideration, every Reform member had voted against free school books and free school requisites.

Credit for Pensions. Combating Mr. Coates’s claim that the Government stood for the promotion of the welfare of all and not any particular section, Mr. Holland said that the taxation measures of 1921 and 1923 gave huge concessions to wealthy farmers, but gave no real relief to the working farmer and the wage worker. Conservatives had bitterly opposed Mr. Seddon’s introduction of the old-age pension .scheme, and only under pressure from the Labour Party had the slight increase been since given. The real credit for old-age pensions was due to the old Liberal Party led by Mr. Seddon and secondly to the persistence of a handful of Labour Party members. The credit claimed for the epidemic pensions was really due to the Hon. G. W. Russell during the regime of the National Government. Pensions for the blind had also only been conceded after pressure, for which Mr. W. E. Parry, Labour member for Auckland Central, deserved most credit,. Case of the Soldiers. Mr. Coates also claimed that ex-sol-diers had been looked after. There were relief works throughout the country, but men could not make a living on the money paid on these jobs. He cited a case at Hope Junction where the workers included twenty-seven soldiers who were not properly equipped and had to appeal to the Red Cross Society for blankets. Many did not receive enough money to meet store and cook-house accounts. Married men received 12s. a day and single men 95.. In the first place Mr. Holland disagreed with the distinction between single and married men. What would the lawyers of Auckland say if it was suggested that their fees should be less in the case of single men?. Mr. Holland also criticised the wages paid on relief works as being inadequate. If the works were of a national character a standard wage should be paid. If the works were not of that category they should not be undertaken by unemployed. When wages were cut below a living standard New Zealand was not fulfilling its obligations under the Peace Treaty. While New Zealand soldiers were on starvation wages on necessary works, miscalled relief works. Mr. Coates had undertaken to give a million pounds towards the Singapore base, which would probably be obsolete before it was completed. Family Allowances. Touching on the family allowances scheme, popularised by the Labour Party, Mr. Holland said that on the eve of last election Jhe Government had allowed the idea to remain that its family allowances would be at the rate of 7s. 6d. a child, yet its Bill introduced in 1926 gave only 2s. a child, and the allowance was so circumscribed that few people could collect it.

Mr. Coates said the country _ should choose a government not committed to Socialistic principles, but that was the merest hypocrisy. To be so ahti-Social-istic as Mr. Coates pretended to be meant the handing over of the State railways, the Public Trust, Post Offices, and so on, to private enterprise, the abandonment of State education and pensions, and setting its face against co-operative marketing. Challenging Mr. Coates’s recent statement that the loss on the railways was only £293,479 this year, Mr. Holland claimed that £489,508 had been _ taken from the Consolidated Fund, making the real loss £783,047.

Labour's Platform. Turning to Labour’s platform, Mr. Holland said its constructive policy would be carried out in its entirety as soon as the countpr gave a mandate. These policy planks he detailed on the lines of his recent Greymouth speechConcluding, Mr. Holland said nt the coming elections voters must range themselves on the side of one of the two great parties—namely, the Conservative Party or the Progressive Labour Party. Old Liberals must remember that the remnants of that party.had deserted its principles, and in casting their votes should not allow cross-currents to divert their attention from main issues. Labour did not stand only for the man who wore bowyangs, but for worker both with hand and brain. Labour did not come begging for oilice, lint came demanding a mandate to right the wrong laws, lift the economic standards, and unlock the doors that barred the way to human progression. A vote of thanks was carried unanfmously to Mr. Holland for his address, and confidence was expressed in the party led by him.

AUCKLAND LABOUR CANDIDATES (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Auckland, June 20. The following official Labour Party candidates are announced as the result of selection ballots: — Eden.—Mr. W. T. Anderton. A. S. Richards. Parnell.—Mr. J. W. Torrance.