MR. H. E. HOLLAND AT NORTHLAND.

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 43, 19 February 1918, Page 3

MR. H. E. HOLLAND AT NORTHLAND.

I The Methodist Schoolroom, Northland, was crowded last night when Mr. H. E. Holland, the official Labour candidate, ispoke. The chairman was Mr. J. Read, president of the Trades and Labour j Council. ! ! Mr. Holland's address was mainly on j the lines of previous speeches. After reference to the agreement for the sale of butter to the Imperial Government, the candidate said that in the face of the profits made under that agreement the Manawatu butter people were threatening to withhold supplies from the local market. Mr. Massey had claimed that ] the primary producers had made sacri■j flees when the figures at which they sold ! their produce were compared with theruling market rates. What he meant was that they were not, robbing the starving people of England of so much as they might if the law of supply and demand . were allowed to .operate.' The Governi ment had commandeered the lives of men at 5s a day, but it would not commandeer the fleet of the Union Company as it could have done. Now the Government stated that it would take the married men also, at 5s a day, with allowances. It was not satisfied with reaching out the long arm of conscription to take every boy when he reached the age of 20, but it proposed to drag husbands away from their wives. The country -was bled white; there was no labour,for public works or anything. It would make no difference if the whole population of New Zealand went to the front. It wonld have been much better if the country had devoted its attention to producing' supplies to be properly distributed to the people of England.' The Government, Mr. Holland continued, hsd not cared for the interests of the .soldiers, nor the interests of the soldiers' parents; it had. made war regulations which had their origin in Prussiariism, and it had been guilty of class administration. Mr. P. C. Webb, M.P. for Grey, also spoke briefly. He stated that the few Labour members in' Parliament had forced the Government to increase the soldiers' pensions, and had shamed other members till there was a demand for better allowances and pensions A vote of confidence' in Mr. Holland was carried with one dissentient.