LABOUR PRONOUNCEMENT

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 143, 14 December 1922, Page 5

LABOUR PRONOUNCEMENT

MS. HOLLAND 01} THE SITUATION.

.'WESTPQRT, 13th December. .. Speaking at a Labour function held to-night to celebrate Labour victories..in the Buller and other electorates, 'Mr. ..: H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour-. Party, said that 'the outstanding feature of the elections just held was the - great advance .made by. the.. ;Labour,,,. Party in.the constituencies contested.',* " and, the fact, that', no sitting Labour ';•' members suffered defeat. "Seventeen*'! I. candidates endorsed by and pledged to the New Zealand Labour Party had- ■ secured election, representing more than - 100 per cent, increase over Labour's 1919 results. . '.. ■' V ■ The present position was one of un-V certainty, and another election within \ the,next six months was quite within the bounds of possibility, although he personally did not think it probable!" He--anticipated that sufficient Liberals"" would go over to, Mr. Massey to give*,.. him a comfortable working majority;This ..they could safely do, in view oftheir individual election pledges/.tcnsupr," port Mr. Massey as against the Labour Party. The Leader of the Liberal Party.;l ■■ had made emphatic pronouncements',on behalf of his party that they would, a^YSsf.' give a vote with the Labour Party -to ■;■ turn the Massey Government out, aiTdl'i I further,' that they would never ,: take r , A office with- the support of, the Labour :/ Party. Hence, assuming that Mr. Wil-/ ford and his supporters meant to live, up*/ to their election pronouncements, ."there did not seem anything for, it, but/on Jh^',.w one hand, a coalition between either th» • whole or a section of the Liberals-and the Government Party, or/ on.the. pthey",:;'' hand, a fresh election.- ; ._ ,„ ,- In his opinion, a Reform-Liberal coalition would represent the logic of political development, for there .was no real, t line of demarcation between these two parties, and another eleotion under the~j present electoral system could !;6hlyjre=;!.'. suit, unsatisfactorily. Between the two of them and the Labour liiovement'there;was a dividing line recognised', by all. ,'J The most sensible way'bf all oui of the difficulty would be, for Parliament : to meet, put through supply, enactproiportional representation, and then: djjj-; >. . solve. With the electoral system shorn. of the first-past-the-post defects,' tKere would be a certainty that in the new Parliament both the majority and the minority would have adequate represent tation. He hoped that if it .should: conic J,o another election the Labour : Party would recognise the wisdom of placing; a candidate in the field in evei-y: electorate.;.