GIFT TO MR HOLLAND.

Grey River Argus, 12 July 1922, Page 6

GIFT TO MR HOLLAND.

FROM WOMEN DELEGATES. A pleasant surprise was sprung on the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party at the recent Labour Conference at Auckland. On Friday evening, just as the Conference was about to adjourn for the tea hour, the President, Mr F. R. Cooke, intimated that the women delegates had asked his permission to be allowed to make a presentation of a mascot to Mr Holland. The presentation was made by Mrs Ballantyne, who said the movement had been initiated by Mrs Lee (wife of the Labour candidate for Auckland East). Mrs Ballantyne referred appreciatively to Mr Holland’s work in the Labour movement, and asked him to accept from the*women delegates a mascot, which she hoped he would keep on his desk at Parliament Buildings, and which would serve to remind him of their good will and bring back pleasant recollections of the 1922 Conference.

Amidst great applause Mrs Ballantyne then handed Mr Holland a moveable calendar mounted on marble, all the delegates rising and singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow,” and finishing up with three ringing cheers. Air Holland, in thanking the women comrades, said they had taken him completely by surprise, and. he hardly knew how to find words in which to thank them. He would treasure their gift, and he was sure their kindly action would be appreciated by all the members of the Party. He also thanked .the delegates for the demonstration of good feeling towards himself, and concluded by paying a high tribute to the remarkable ability with which the women delegates had placed their views before Conference. He would remember the present incident as one of the pleasantest in his experience.