LABOUR’S LAND POLICY.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2715, 24 June 1925, Page 6

LABOUR’S LAND POLICY.

NO INTENTION TO CHANGE. WHAT FRANKLIN HAS TAUGHT PARTY. [Per Press Association.! WELLINGTON, Last Night. Mr. H. E. Holland, leader of the Labour party, who has been laid up with a heavy cold since his return to Wellington from the north, made the following statement to-day concerning the Franklin by-election result: “It has been suggested that as a result of the Franklin contest, the Labour party will drop its present land policy. I want to say that there is not the remotest chance of this happening, and there isn't a shadow of reason why it should happen. The present Labour movement does not change its policy every time it fails to win an election. . . . The land policy of the Labour party is economically sound and Labour will not discard what is for the common good merely because a section of the electors has not accepted it at the first time of asking. The lesson wo have learned from Franklin is that we, cannot expect to enter at short notice and win an electorate in which we have an organisation only in one remote corner, and where hitherto it has not been possible for us to carry on any really effective propaganda. Wo have never been able to do sc in the industrial centres Franklin is a far better first effort result than nine out of ten of our other first efforts'. Six years ago. we should probably not have polled 500 votes in that most conservative of all rural districts. . . . “Franklin has added more than 2000 votes to Labour’s Dominion aggregate. while some 600 votes have been added to the Reform aggregate. It has shown that 85 per cent, of those who last year voted Liberal this year voted Labour, while 15 per cent, voted Reform and the party’s effective work throughout the electorate during the campaign has most certainly laid the foundation for Labour’s future success.