The Hawera Star WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1932. IRRESPONSIBILITY OF MR HOLLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 30 March 1932, Page 4

The Hawera Star

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 1932. IRRESPONSIBILITY OF MR HOLLAND.

Delivered every evening by 6 o clock in Hawera Manaia. Kaupokonui, Otakebo, Oeo. Pihama, Opunake. Norinanby. Okaiawa, Eltham, Ngaere. Mangatoki, Kaponga. Awatuna. Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi Kakaramea. Alton, Hurleyville. Pafea. Whenuakura. Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

On his return to his own electorate lost week Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, reiterated some of the threatening statements made so freely by members of his party in the House during the debate on the Arbitration Bill. At Westport he said that if the Arbitration Bill were passed by the Legislative Council and if the “disastrous” recommendations of the Economy Commission were adopted ‘ ‘ the most dangerous hour in the history of New Zealand” would have struck and ‘ all the conditions making for industrial upheavals and insurrectionary developments” would have been created by the “Coates-Forbes Coalition.” In the unlikely event of an occurrence of industrial trouble in New Zealand this year the responsibility for it will rest laigelj upon the shoulders of Mr Holland and his colleagues in Parliament. In their desire to obstruct legislation which they believe aims a blow, not at unionists, but at the trade-union-labour-political machine, they have not hesitated to employ inflammatory language. It must be a great disappointment to Mr Holland and Co. to find that the large body of -employed unionists are not showing any signs of recognition of the grievances which Labour tells them arc really theirs. The working man in a job "does not enjoy the prospect of increased taxation or reduced wages, but he is well able to observe conditions for himself and to think for himself. One result of his observation is that he sees a whole world suffering from economic depression; he has seen his fellow unionists in Australia suffer a 20 per cent, cut in wages and heavy taxation imposed upon them —and all this under Labour Governments. The worker is not a fool and he knows that money cannot he conjured out of thin air—even Mr Lang has been unable to do it—and he thus remains unimpressed by the hot-air which has been given out from the Labour Party. Among certain sections of the unemployed and of the Communistic elements which are present in each of the four centres, Mr Holland's flamboyancies may fall upon more fertile soil, however. There are plenty of men in New Zealand to-day who are concerned, not so much about getting work and a fair return for their labour as about acquiring some sort of prestige and. power which is denied them in society as at present constituted. These hot-heads, malcontents, warped intellectuals, or just plain fools—they include all sorts in their ranks, including the born loafer —cannot be blamed excessively if they find encouragement in the words of the Leader of the Opposition to foolish action. There are some clever enough men in the Parliamentary Labour Party, but it is difficult, to give them credit for working in the best interests of the masses when they waste the time of Parliament, and in the recess stump the country, indulging in soap-box rhetoric of the “most-dangcrous-'hour-has-struck” type.