PRIME MINISTER

Grey River Argus, 11 February 1938, Page 10

PRIME MINISTER

REPLIES TO OPPOSITION. Terse comment was made by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, on a statement made by Mr S. G. Holland, M.P., at a garden party In Auckland in which he reflected on the integrity of the Arbitration Court. “It is a reflection on the judiciary and one which he would not be allowed to make on the floor of the House,” said Mr. Savage. “He says we are telling the Court what to do with awards; I say that that is a lie.” Mr. Holland made the following statement when referring to what the National Party would do if it became the Government: “As far a? are concerned, they will be left to the Arbitration Court, to a free, unfettered and uninstructed Arbitration Court, which we have not got to-day. We are going to leave the question of hours of work to an uninstructed and uninspired Court.” “If it were not so tragic it would' be the joke of the century,” said the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J Savage, in an interview with .“The Standard,” when referring to the claim of the president of the Auckland Rotary Club that his organisation was non-political. At a luncheon meeting of the club, an address, which consisted wholly of an attack on the Government’s administration, was given by Mr. W. H. Hemingway. At the conclusion of the address the president of the club, said it would be interesting to hear a reply to Mr. Hemingway, except that the club’s constitution required it to keep clear of political controversy. “It was a poisonous and vindictive address,” said Mr. Savage, who commented that a club, which would welcome a speaker of that type and then excuse itself from the duty of hearing the other side, could not maintain the pretence of being non-political.