MR. WEBB EXPLAINS

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 44, 20 February 1918, Page 8

MR. WEBB EXPLAINS

Speaking at Post Office-square at noon to-day in support of Mr. H. E. Holland, Mr. P. C. Webb, M.P. for Grey, deplored what he termed the effort of the Government. to discredit Mr. Holland's candidature .for Wellington North through the miners in his (Mr. Webb's) electorate. 1 "He" held that it was not tHe miners alone who wera asking for his exemption from military service, but tho big majority of the people in h>s electorate, including the farmers, business people, and workers generally. Three out of five farmers "<voted solidly for him, and his majority .had increased. The boys who had returned from the front, too, were asking-for exemption for him, confident that he would look after their interests. So also were the mothers and fathers and relatives of those who were away at the front, and ho would be willing to take a vote of the soldiers in camp now on the question and abide by the result. When he had been called up ho did not seek exemption of any kind; it was' the people of his constituency, backed by tho miners of New Zealand. Mr. Webb went on to detail how he decided to resign his seat and' how 30.000 people had urged that he be retained in the country as their representative in Parliament. In this connection he criticised the Government for its neglect of the Westland electorate, and said he hnd received' many .letters of complaint on this score from Mr. • T.> E. Y. Seddon's constituents. Reverting to the question of exemption, lie spoke of the police, and "contrasted., the exemption of men who enforced the law with the non-exemption of .men who helped-to make the law. B« wished to clearly indicate that the reflection on the miners was unwarranted and untrue." Everjrtime wheu hi Parlksnsnt he had had to put up a fight against

the National Government he had been threatened with the rope of conscription, and he had vainly challenged any member of the present-' Cabinet to resign his seat, come to Grey, and there contest the issue with him (Mr. Webb). Having paid a high tribute to the work of the miners under difficult and hazardous conditions, Mr. Webb concluded by saying that it was absolutely cruel of the Government, so far as the miners were concerned, to endeavour to damage the; candidature of Mr. Holland for Wellington North.