PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21292, 20 September 1932, Page 12

PRE-SESSIONAL ADDRESS

MR. HOLLAND AT WESTPORT OBSERVATIONS ON OTTAWA [BY TELEGRAPH —rRESS ASSOCIATION] WESTPORT, Monday The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. 11. E. Holland, delivered a pre-sessional address in the Town Hall this evening. Mr. Holland said there had been a good deal of guessing as to what the Labour Party would do at the commencement of the session. It could be taken for granted that every matter of outstanding importance would come under review at an early meeting of the party. Currency was a subject that must come into any discussion on main questions and no doubt it would engage the early attention of tho party. They must recognise, however, that no policy of currency reform alone could bring the change that was needed to end unemployment. That would need a comprehensive scheme of social reconstruction, of which currency reform would be an extremely important part. Referring to the statement made at the recent meeting of the Takapuna Jockey Club that every Labour member in Parliament was working to get bookmakers licensed, Mr. Holland said it was a stupid mis-statement, and whether ignorantly or deliberately made, was inexcusable. Referring to tho Ottawa Conference, Mr. Holland said the Daily Herald was well within tho mark when it described the Ottawa arrangement as nebulous, with no tangible offer of increased trade. Mr. Coates had pleaded for the raising of price levels, and this was a movement that was inevitable, but price levels, whether in England or tho Dominions, could only be lifted by first of all substantially lifting wages. The world was suffering from the failure of purchasing power to keep paco with the increasing power of production.