THE SESSION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 13 December 1932, Page 6

THE SESSION

REVIEW BY MR HOLLAND CRITICISM OF GOVERNMENT (By Telegraph—Press Association) WESTPORT, 11th December. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr 11. E. Holland, arrived at Westport from Wellington on Saturday evening. lie said that during the course of that portion of the present session which had just ended only one or two measures of any consequence had been put through, and the Government had put forward no policy of any kind whatever for coping with.the outstanding problem of unemployment and its direct internal cause, the lack of purchasing power. The Labour Party alone, said Mr Holland, had presented constructive proposals for industrial rehabilitation and monetary reform. This programme had been outlined by himself in his speech in the Budget debate, and had been further developed by the Deputy-Leader of the Opposition, Mr M. J. Savage, when moving the Labour Party amendment to the recent Finance Bill. Through himself, the Opposition had also put forward a proposal for a comprehensive investigation by a committee, representative of the Government, the Opposition, and Independents, of the main problem and the different proposals ad vanced for its solution. Parliament, continued Mr Holland, should not have adjourned until the House had been given an opportunity to deal with remedial legislation. Because* of the Government s failure in this connection, the coming Christmas would be the saddest in Ike history of the Dominion. It was notorious that the centra! 'reason for'(he adjournment was to give the Government breathing space in which to endeavour to compose the extremely serious differences which were threatening to end the Coalition. As a result ( of those differences, far-reaching developments were possible. In any case, Mr Holland said lie was convinced that the present Parliament would not last for the four years term to which it had unconstitutionally extended its own life. The grayest /hunger that confronted the Dominion, in Mr Holland s eyes, was the likelihood of another failure to bring down effective legislation when the House next met, and the possibility of the Government entering upon further destruction of purchasing power by additional . salary and wage reductions. This would intensify deflationary processes, and might unfortunately make Mr R. A: Wright’s forecast of a. revolution in the near future something more than an ex-Minister’s angry threat. In that case the charge made by the exMinister of Education that the Coalition Government would he responsible for what followed would he abundantly justified. The only way to stability and security was in the policy enunciated from the Labour benches.