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Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 150, 29 June 1929, Page 8

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"WORKERS' ENEMY"

MR. D. JONES ATTACKED

Declaring that the workers of the Dominion had never had more done for them by any other Government than by the late Reform administration, Mr. D. Jones (Mid-Canterbury) stated in the House of Representatives last night that a testimony to the Reform Government had been paid quite recently by tile member for Christchurch South. Mr. Jones declared that Mr. E. J. Howard had said in Christchurch that New Zealand was not yet right for the Labour Party, because the working men were too well off. Mr. Howard: "That is a deliberate lnisstatement, and you- know it." Mr. Speaker: "Order, the hon. gentleman must withdraw that." "Well, it was, Sir," said Mr. Howard. Mr. Speaker again asked for the statement to be withdrawn. Mr. Howard: "Well, if you insist, Sir, 1 will do so." Mr. Speaker: "I am afraid it is a question of veracity." Mr. Jones said he was sorry if he had misrepresented Mr. - Howard, but that was how he had been reported in the newspapers. . ' Mr. Howard: "No, Sir." Mr. Jones: "I think it- was a bit worse than that." He described Mr. Howard's statement as one of the highest testimonies a member of the Labour Party had ever paid to the Reform Government. The facts proved that the Reform Government was the best friend the workers of New Zealand had ever had. Mr. Howard protested against Mr. Jones knowingly twisting hfa • (Mr. Howard's) statements, and attributing to him things he had never said. "What I said," he declared, "was that the country—l used the term as we use it when we refer to the country quota was not ready for the Labour Party because the country—using the term again in the same sense—had resisted the advanced legislation, and the advantages the workers have got under awards of the Court. I refer to the advanced legislation put on the Statute Book by our friends on the Liberal side of the House in years gone by. Mr. Howard declared that Mr. Jones had got his start in life in connection with the farm labourers' case. There was never a greater enemy of the workers for wages than Mr. Jones. : Claiming that he had been misrepresented by Mr. Howard, Mr. Jones disputed the assertion that he had done everything possible to cut down workers' wages. All he had done was to take the farm labourers' case before the Court because he was president of the Canterbury Farmers' Union. The question of wages was not discussed, but whether country work could be done under an award fixing hours and conditions. ME. ATMORE BEPLEES. The Minister of Education (the Hon. H. Atmore), replying to Mr. Jones, said that the Reform Party had been in office so long because of the success of the previous Liberal legislation. The Reform Party dared not repeal that legislation. Everyone knew that the Reform Party could not remain in office long before it reached the soup kitchen stage. The £12,000,00p trade balance last year was due to the people, not the Reform Government. The deficit of approximately £600,000 was due to the Reform Government's administration. On 14th October, orl exactly a month before the last General Election, while the late Prime Minister, was telling the people that the country , had turned the corner and was emerging into the sunshine of pros--perity, he signed a le.tter to heads of Departments warning them to be careful in expenditure because a deficit was inevitable. The speaker would not have mentioned that had it not been for the fact that Mr. Jones had made certain statements in his usual unfair way. , The present Prime Minister was in a difficult position because of the incapacity of the Reform Party when it was in office. Mr. Howard had been quite right in saying what he did about Mr. Jones, for it was no new thing for Mr. Jones to say what he knew was not right. Mr. Speaker: "That is imputing a want of veracity." Mr. Atmore: "I will put it this way, that his statements will not bear analysis." (Laughter.) "A PRELIMINARY CANTER!" The Minister emphasised that it would be no use trying to solve the unemployment problem until the question of land settlement was put upon a satisfactory basis. Mr. Atmore again attacked Mr. Jones, who, he said, had not been accepted by any electorate twice. The Leader of the Opposition (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates): "The Hon. Minister missed once." Mr. Atmore: "No, he didn't." . A Reform Member: "Once in Wellington." ' • Mr. Atmore: "Oh, that was only a preliminary canter." (Laughter.) Mr.'R. A. Wright (Wellington Suburbs) said that the Liberal Govern•ment had been faced with an unemployment problem in 1908, so much so, that Civil servants had had to be retrenched. What was the good, therefore, of blaming the Reform Government for the unemployment trouble? Even in 1879; when a Liberal Government under Sir George Grey, was in office, this country was nearly on tho rocks, and had it not been for a cablegram sent to London the country would not have been able to pay its interest. It was idle to blame the late Government for a state of affairs that had been brought about by economic conditions and not through legislation. - '. The letter sent by Mr. Coates to the heads of Departments .in October was not .contradictory of what he had been telling the country; it was paradoxical. Mr. Coates had been quite right in saying there would be a deficit because Customs revenue had been falling. The speaker suggested that farmers who were not heavily mortgaged had been prosperous.