LIBERAL CAMPAIGN IN THE AUCKLAND DISTRICT PLAIN TALK PROMISED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 70, 24 March 1914, Page 3

LIBERAL CAMPAIGN IN THE AUCKLAND DISTRICT PLAIN TALK PROMISED.

(II TILKGRAPH— SPICUb 10 THI POM.) ] AUCKLAND. This Day. I The Liberals are inaugurating a camjoaign in the Auckland district. Sir Joseph Ward will arrive here to-morrow, j and will deliver a speech. He will then proceed to Te Aroha, where he will make a reply to the recent speech delivered there by the Prime Minister. In the meantime, Messrs. W. D. S. Mac Donald, J. C. Thomson, and G. Witty, M.P's, have arrived, and have set out on the warpath in the North of Auckland. They will be joined at the { end of this week by Mr. T. Seddon, M.P. Messrs. Mac Donald, Thomson, and Witty proceeded to Helensville yesterday. An interesting and important feature of the campaign is the promised "straight speaking" by Mr. Mac Donald with reference to the action of those members of Parliament who crossed the floor of the House after having been elected as Liberals. "We are told by ! our opponents," said Mr. Mac Donald to a reporter yesterday, "that the Liberal Party is dead, and that the present Government is really Liberal. Nevertheless, the facts stand out very clearly that at the last election there were 42 representatives returned to support the Liberal Party and progressive measures, as against 38 returned to support the present Government, and the reason of our opponents now being in oflice is the treachery of some members of the Liberal Party who were returned by Liberal constituencies. We feel that there is sufficient political morality left in these constituencies that were betrayed to deal ' out political death to those who broke .their pledges. It is my intention to do some plain speaking in those constituencies, 'in order to show how the present political situation has been brought about." " I also want to explain our attitude in regard to the late industrial troubles," said Mr. Mac Donald, "and to the various measures which we, as an Opposition, combated during the last session, and we also intend showing people the retrograde legislation that has been passed recently." Proceeding to expjain the attitude of the party in relation to the late industrial troubles, Mr. Mac Donald said that the Liberals, from political motives, had been accused of assisting the strikers. While it was a well-known fact that the Liberals and the Labour Party had worked sympathetically together for many years, when the strike occurred in Wellington the caucus of the party was called together, and they decided at that meeting to in no way embarrass the Government in the settlement of the dispute. "We never took a-ny adverse part in any shape or form in hampering the settlement of the dispute," de* clared Mr. Mac Donald. " I was going to say in hampering the Government insettling the strike, but it is a wellknown fact that, as far as the Government is concerned, it did very little to settle the strike. Sir Joseph Ward has been accused of making sympathetic speeches in regard to the strikers, but I would refer any person who wants to know the real facts of the case to Sir Joseph Ward's speeches as published in Hansard, which clearly sets out his statement in regard to the matter. Although we did not interfere with the Government, we were confident at the same time that conciliatory methods could have been adopted which would have largely prevented the present condition of things. , It is quite clear that during the coming winter, owing to the preference clauses in the industrial agreements, there is going to be a considerable amount of hardship inflicted on the men who took part in the strike owing to the methods adopted in the so-called settlement of the strike. There is every prospect that it is going to inflict very great hardships upon large numbers of people throughout the different centres in New Zealand."