POLSON PULVERISED

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 30, 25 July 1923, Page 3

POLSON PULVERISED

I S. Codings Replies to Farmers' Union President... Slanders Saiaghtered . Early in June we sent a "Lyttelton Times" report of a speech delivered by Mr. W. J. Poison, President of the N.Z. Farmers' Union, in which the Queensland Labour Government was bitterly attacked, to Mr. J. S. Gollings for reply. Mr. Collings has sent a copy of his reply to Mr. Poison and the "Lyttelton Times," as under: To W. J. Poison, Esq., Dominion President of the Farmers' Union-of NeAV Zealand. Dear Sir, —If you are correctly reported in the "Lyttelton Times" of Friday, June 8 last, permit mc to say that in your address to. the annual conference of the North Canterbury district of your Union, in so far as yon referred to the actions of the Labour Government of Queensland, you A-vere guilty, either ignorantly or knoAvingly, of very serious untruthfulness. If you Avill allow mc, I should like to correct some of it. The Labour Government has never repudiated one lease nor even the smallest portion of any lease or any other contract regarding the pastoral lands of the State. As has been stated hundreds of times in reply to this oft-repeated lie —repeated, too, always as in your * case, because of the fear of the growing power of Labour in every country in the world, all that was dope was to insist that the squatters should return to the terms upon which they originally took up the country they hold and cease robbing the people of Queensland under cover of A SPECIAL FAVOUR GRANTED THEM MANY YEARS AGO UNDER VERY SPECIAL CONDITIONS AS A MEASURE OF TEMPORARY RELIEF ONLY, AND NEVER IN THEIR LEASES AT ALL. Further, the Government has nothing whatever to do with the fixing of the rents for these holdings, and so another of your falsehoods is exposed for the puerile thing it is, to all Avho know the facts.

There is not one case on record in this State of any pastoraiist being, as you say, "practically ruined" through any act of the present Government, though many arc suffering financial stress on account of the world-wide slump in cattle A'alues, and some others be f L :an:.■.;.> of drought. But. Sir, let mc toll yon. that Aye have not in this country the :-:orry spectacle which you have in yours at this present moment of hundreds of farmers -i'oing through -the bankruptcy court. That happening is so A r ery rare here that one might almost say it is unknown. Again, sir. there is not even a semblance of truth in your statements regarding the taking of meat by the Government from the freezing works and distributing it amongst the State

butchers' shops, Avhile your further li< as to meat being given to strikers ivho had refused to load meat for the troops at, the front is so cowardly and shameful, so cruel a slander upon a body .of men who probably sent more of their members to the firing line than any other, that I feel it almost a degradation to repeat it.

As for the action taken regarding the passing of a Judiciary -Bill, you should know- -and I feel sure do

know—-thai; this was' done until the need for it had become an actual public scandal, and that in its passage through the House it had the support covertly of legal members of the Opposition. "Men of our oavh" were not, however, as you say, put in. Let m c remind you, sir, that, no cause is ever permanently advantaged by falsehood or by .slandering its opponents, also that Avhen truth and falsehood grapple truth ultimately emerges triumphant. If your cowardly and untruthful propaganda is all. that Labour in New Zealand has to combat, then .1 am quite satisfied that . your fear, publicly expressed, "that it ndght yet he the official Opposrtion" in your country is certain to (it-come an, accomplished fact Aery much .sooner | than you anticipate. While you are ■ •attempting the role, of prophet you can ■ with safety predict that ere long Air.! Holland and his companions Avill be. the Government of New Zealand, and; that, Avhen that time comes, as come! it will, the people of "God's Own; Country" will get relief from their; present evil economic conditions just: in proportion as the legislation of the Parliament follows along the lines of this present Labour Government of Queensland— legislation .which is setting other parts of the world afire with hope; legislation which, after eight years of experience, the people of this State so enthusiastically, endorsed at the polls a feAv Aveeks ago. .In conclusion, may X.. sir, be pcr r mitted to. remind, you ,of the* Divine injunction of old, "TUo.u sk{*lt not

bear false witness against tin- neighbour." and to suggest that the LaAVgiver had not in his mind any reservations, and that condemnation will surely foUoAv the false Avitness, even though he is actuated by an unholy hatred of the Labour Party.—Yours for Truth and Right, J. S. OOLLrINGS, State Organiser for Queensland of the Australian Labour Party. Parliament House, Brisbane, July 7, 1923. P.S. —I am sending copies of this letter to the "Lyttelton Times'' and to the "Siaoviiand WmSmiTV-J&G»