A LABOUR FAULT

Hokitika Guardian, 11 August 1928, Page 1

A LABOUR FAULT

(From the Dominion.) In the House of Representatives recently was witnessed a very fair sample of the style of political criticism which constitutes the stock-in-trade of Air Holland’s Labour-Socialist Party. The report of tho State Fire Insurance Department was before the House, and true to form, Ah- Holland’s followers proceeded to attack the Government. The fact that the working of the Department and the result of the year’s operations had been quite satisfactory offered no bar to .the inventive genius of tlie Hollandnites. Had tlie Department been unfortunate enough to suffer a had year it would, of course, have been attributed to the mismanagement or incompetence of the Government. But as it had had a good year and the Government still had to: be blamed, it was a simple matter to base the attack on the ground that the results should have been even better than they were. The one guiding principle of the Holland party is that whatever the Government does must be wrong. Ibis is

very simple,, but very stupid, for no one really believes that even a Government they disagree with is invariably at fault. But the worst feature of the methods of the present Official Opposition is the readiness —it is practically a habit—with which its members impute to its opponents unworthy motives, The suggestion of sinister influences at work behind the scenes lias become a commonplace with them. It is not an enviable or a wholesome state of mind.