OPPOSITION LEADER

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1932, Page 5

OPPOSITION LEADER

BIG AUCKLAND MEETING Recall of Government Urged STRONGLY ADVOCATED. (Per Press Association). AUCKLAND, June 29. The Leader of the Opposition, Mill. E. Holland, delivered a public address before an audience that almost filled the Auckland Town Hall to night. Mr Holland, referring to the Ottawa Conference, complained that the Labour Party had not been given any re presentation on the New Zealand delegation, with the result that the quar ter of a million people who had voted for the Labour members were not represented. Mr Holland contended that we should seek a definite agreement with Britain, under which she would take a stated quantity of our products, and we would take a stated quantity of her goods. Following that, said Mr Holland, we should make a similar arrangement with the other British Dominions, and then should seek to arrive at an agreement with any country that was willing to trade with us on the basis of reciprocity. The speaker then referred to the Petition which the Labour Party is now circulating, calling on the Government to resign, and he devoted the greater part of his address to dealing with the measures enacted during the recent session of Parliament. Ho claimed that, as the Government had put through legislation that had not been mentioned during the election campaign, it should now give the elec tors the right to say whether these far-reaching changes should be allowed tp go into effect. Among these measures were the flat wages tax without any accompanying income tax steeply graded to catch the higher incomes; the action of Parliament in extending its own life, which he held was tin democratic and unconstitutional; and the reduction of the pensions, particularly the old age and the miners* widows’ pensions. As other reasons for recalling the present Government, Air Holland instanced the mismanagement of the un employment problem and the amendments to the, Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, which, he said, had been put through at the behest of the Manufacturers’ Association, and which placed in the hands of the em ployers the power to prevent any case going from a Conciliation Council to the Arbitration Court After further criticising the record of the Government, Mr Holland said that the Labour Party stood for economic reconstruction; for the rehabilitation in industry of men and women at standard wages, which would restore their purchasing power, and would mean a financial equilibrium in Now Zealand. The speaker touched briefly on the rate of exchange, and he contended that there should be no forcing up of that rate. A resolution was carried which thanked Mr Holland for his address, and, after expressing indignation at the Government’s policy and administration, expressed the opinion that the Government’s failure to deal with vital problems of the Dominion provid ed a substantial reason for its resig nation, with a view to submitting its policv to the electors.