PARTIES AND POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18332, 23 February 1923, Page 7

PARTIES AND POLITICS.

THE LABOUR VIEWPOINT. MR. WILFORD IN DILEMMA. PROSPECTS OF COALITION. [BY XELEQBAPH. — ASSOCIATION.] DUNEDIN. Thursday. Mr. H. E. Holland, the Leader of the Labour Party, addressed a packed meeting ,at ';'■; South Duned in to-night. The speaker was frequently applauded, and at the close was accorded a vote of ('.hank* and confidence. He claimed thai the outstanding feature of the last election was the overwhelming defeat of Reform and the increase of Labour's representation. Mr,Wilfor'd's dilemma was, he said, that prior lo the election ho had declared in the House that ho would never vote with Labour to turn Mr. Massey out, and that he would never take office with "the assistance of Labour. J The speaker argued that the strength in the House of the different parties was a strong case for proportional representation. Had this system been in vogue Labour would!..have had two more seats out of the 40 it had contested, and if it had contested the 80 electorates it would probably have* had "25 members in the House. ; ;•: Dealing with the new Labour members. Mr. "_ Holland declared that they could easily hold their, own in debate. Every one of them was a brilliant, speaker. • It had. been said that the Roman Catholic Church was behind the Labour Party. His reply to that was that at the last election he was opposed by a Roman Catholic, and Mr. Howard Elliott's strongest supporters were all ,on his opponent's committee. (Laughter.) After < explaining how the Labour Party came to nominate Mr. J. McCombs for the Speakership, Mr. Holland added that Mr. C. E. Statham had already proved himself one of the fairest Speakers the House had ever had. The position, at present was that Labour had no confidence in Mr. Massey, and in future it would vote as in the past. So long as Mr. Massey accepted a motion as a no-confidence motion, the Labour Party would always vote for it. Attacking .• the Liberals, / Mr. Holland stated that a number of .them, such as Mr. G. Witty and Mr. A. Bell, had defeated: the : Government candidates, and had been elected by the workers because they were, against the.Government. How then could they be asked to reconcile their post-election attitude with their pre-elec-tion attitude. Mr. Wilford's. idea was , that he should take the Treasury benches and that he be held there bv Reform. Mr. Wilford would not .deny that. Asked how he would . hold office if ho secured it, Mr. Wilford had replied that: Labour could not defeat the Liberals un- r less Reform went with it. That might be all right in petty Police Court fighting, but : was no ' good in ! political fighting. It would be far better for' Mr. -Wilford to go over to the Government benches and be done with : it. -■"<■'■ %■ •'* '.-.■:*':" ;■-. ■• In reference to. the. conversations between Reformers and Liberals, he said that he did not know what would. occur. If there were a combination, the Government would ■;". po on for another three years and iwould probably introduce * preferential voting system. \