THE LABOUR LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 136, 9 June 1926, Page 3

THE LABOUR LEADER

PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS

UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WESTPORT, Bth June,

Mr. 11. E. Holland, M.P., Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party, delivered a pre-sessional address last night, the Mayor presiding. He said that the opening of the present Parliament would mark a new era in New Zealand politics, since for the first time in the Dominion's history the Labour Party would occupy the official Opposition benches. He thought that the Liberal or National Party would rapidly disappear, its official elements drifting into the Reform camp and the Radical section of its rank and file going to the Labour Party, • . He] dealt at some length with the question of unemployment, which he -said was becoming a very real problem. Every man able and willing to work was entitled to demand employment, and when private capitalism broke down to the extent .that it left willing workers unemployed it was the duty of the State to ace that work was found for them. The science of government consisted in making and administering laws in such a way as to accord to every citizen equality of opportunity in this respect. Ever since there had been a Labour movement it had demanded work at standard wages for men who were involuntarily unemployed. Work so found should be reproductive and of economic value, otherwise it would not be worth, doing. When Mr. Coates arrogantly told unemployed workers. that that they would not get standard wages but, in effect, only what the Government chose to give them, he wag not only.offering an insult to the men but by implication was flouting the Court which fixed a standard by law. • Mr. Holland strongly resented the charges made by the Prime Minister and the Hon. A. D. M'Leod that Labour ,nembers who sought to find work for unemployed citizens were only doing it for po-' litical party purposes. On the contrary, he said; they were acting consistently 'with the well-established right-to-work principle of the Labour movement, and the Government would not be permitted to escape from the consequences of its own ineptitude by the use of a worn-out cry of that sort. CHALLENGING THE GOVERNMENT; He declared that the Opposition would challenge the Government on its action in sending to the Legislative Council renegade Liberals, whose appointment was a reward for having held the Reform Government in office after being defeated by the votes of the people in 1922. They would challenge the Government on .its action in heavily raising the rate of interest on State Advances loans;- on its penalising public servants who stood as Parliamentary candidates by only permitting them to return to work at reduced wages; on its continued dishonouring of the Labour clauses of the Peace Treaty, and on the censorship of literature uncensored in all or nearly all other British countries, and the partisan administration of the law in connection with the censorship. They would also strenuously object to the High Commissionership being used as a plum to be given to a Government supporter,, irrespective of his qualifications for the office. Sir James Parr's garrulous propensities, let loose as soon as he landed in London, had already called forth a rebuke from the West Australian Agent-General, because of misrepresentation with respect to a large group settlement in Australia.

After dealing with a number of minor matters, Mr. Holland concluded with a lengthy reference to incidents connected with the Geneva Protocol and Security Pact, and declared- that the Opposition would stand for both Parliament and people being consulted before being committed to any policy of Imperial or international import. He was accorded thanks and congratulated on" his leadership of the official Opposition.