LABOUR PARTY TACTICS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20867, 6 November 1929, Page 8

LABOUR PARTY TACTICS.

To the Labour Party the public is indited for one of the few diverting episodes of the parliamentary session. The party has been very consistent on the whole in lending the Government its shoulder to lean upon, going even the length of supporting proposals of which it has expressed strong disapproval, as in the case of the doubling of the primage duty, rather than see the Government defeated on a crucial division. But, in following out his design of making as much political capital as possible out of the refusal of the Prime Minister to spend a million or so upon the restoration of the salary cuts in the case of the public servants, Mr Holland apparently allowed his zeal to outrun his discretion. For it brought about an unexpected reversal of the usual order of party combination in the House. Of course there is the question, raised by strong suggestions from members of the Reform Party, whether the whole episode of Mr Holland’s motion condemnatory of the Government for its failure to make provision for improvement in the salaries of the public servants was hot a pre-arranged affair between the Labour Party and the Government, which would turn the whole debate into nothing better than a sham fight and a comedy of make-believe. If such suggestions had any foundation, it was a dangerous game for the United Party and the Labour Party to play. For it would have had tragic consequences for the Government if the Reform Party had supported, as it was quite entitled to do, the motion introduced by Mr Holland. The amusing aspect of the affair was provided in the concern manifested by

the Leader of the Labour Party and his supporters when the Acting-Leader of the House announced his intention of regarding the motion as one of noconfidence. Plausible arguments advanced with a view to securing a withdrawal of this decision were of no avail. The Labour Party was obviohsly not at all anxious to do anything that might result in the Government’s being displaced. In the debate of last week on Mr Coates’s motion on the primage duty question Mr Holland made plain his anxiety to keep the Government in office in the meantime,' even at the sacrifice of principle to-political.expediency. In the discussion on the civil service salaries he must have been tom by conflicting emotions reflecting the conjectural possibilities of the situation. But, if his concern at the dignity conferred upon his motion by the Government was genuine, and if we dismiss the idea of a pre-concerted GovernmentLabour plan to forestall the Reform Party in a proposal that might have placed the Labour Party in an embarrassing position as the avowed champion of the public servants, it may be presumed that Mr Holland was relieved at the result of the division. That the Acting-Prime Minister was justified in regarding Mr Holland’s motion as one of no-confidence is sufficiently clear. Plainly a , proposal which embodied a method by which certain expenditure might be met —in this case by taxation of all; incomes over a specified amount —contemplated taking from the Government a responsibility which belongs to it and should not be abrogated by it. It is for the Government to control expenditure and propose schemes of taxation if it considers them necessary. Otherwise it could not claim to be able to act in the best interests of the country. Apart from that, the effect of the Labour Party’s proposal had to be considered. The, acceptance of it would have involved a serious dislocation of the country’s finance at the present time. Mr Forbes has estimated that a 5 per cent, increase on public servants’ salaries up.to £295 might involve an expenditure of £500,000. Even if that was an over-estimate clearly the Government, faced as it has been by unexpected calls upon its resources, is in no position to provide for an increase of serious dimensions in the expenditure that is chargeable against revenue. Upon the attitude of the Labour Party towards taxation it is scarcely necessary to enlarge.