MR HOLLAND'S ADDRESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20290, 24 December 1927, Page 12

MR HOLLAND'S ADDRESS

TOUR OF THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. SECRET MEETINGS IN WELLINGTON. BARREN WORK OF SESSION. CRITICISM OF CONDUCT OF BUSINESS. (Per United Press Association.) GREYMOUTH, December 23. Speaking at the opening of the new miners’ hall at Blackball to-night, Mr H. E. Holland (Leader of the Opposition) made reference to the visit of Mr Amery to New Zealand, and said the Labour Party viewed with complete dissatisfaction the methods of secrecy observed in connection with Mr Amery’s meeting with the Prime Minister and Cabinet, as well as with Parliament. No one knew yet the purpose of the visit. Certainly it was not confided to when Mr Amery addressed that body in secret, and no one outside the Cabinet knew what the conversations between the British Minister and the New Zealand Prime Minister amounted to. He insisted that both Parliament and the people should be in a position to know the nature of whatever proposals the British Government wished to make affecting the Dominion. Referring to the late session of Parliament, he said it was one of the most barren the Dominion had known. Notwithstanding the promises made to the farmers, all they had got in the way of rural credits was another Act of Parliament, which would not materially help the man on the land, and the agricultural bank was as far off as ever. So far as the Reform Party was concerned the Prime Minister had definitely promised that the report of the Samoan Royal Commission would be made available to members of Parliament, but while the report had been handed to the press exactly a fortnight ago, neither he nor any other member of Parliament had been allowed to receive a copy. Beyond the reports which appeared in the newspapers they were not in a position to offer an opinion on the report, but from the newspaper condemnations it -would appear that the commission was handicapped by the limitation imposed by the Order of Reference. Ho made the strongest possible protest against the action of the Government in handing the report to the press while withholding it from the elected members of Parliamnt. The amending Arbitration Bill, which fortunately the Labour Party succeeding in blocking, forecasted the attack on wages and working conditions which would inevitably be made if the party remained in office. He dealt with the problem of unemployment, which he said was increasing, and charged the Government with dismissing men from certain public works on the eve of Christmas. He made brief reference to Mr Coates’s Licensing Bill, which, he said, had never been intended to reach the Statute Book. Both the liquor party and the prohibitionists had been let down. Next session the Labour Party would

bring in a proposal for majority voting in connection with the licensing polls They would provide for preferential voting on the .three issues now in the Act, and would effectually dispose of the two issue versus three issue controversy. The Labour Party ■would also bring in a Bill to abolish the Legislative Council. One of the worst features of Parliament was its night sitting. No business in the country would dream of conducting its affairs in the way the business of the House was conducted. At night sittings 70 per cent, of the member were out of their places and half of the remainder .were asleep on the branches. One of the first Acts of a Labour Government would be to regulate the hours in which Parliament would do its work.