A DESTRUCTIVE CRITIC

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21649, 20 May 1932, Page 8

A DESTRUCTIVE CRITIC

POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT ADDRESS BY MR HOLLAND (Per United Press Association.) WESTPORT, May 19. This evening under the auspices of the Unemployed Workers’ Union, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. E. Holland) addressed a crowded meeting in the Westport Town Hall. He reviewed in detail the legislation of last session, claiming that the measures enacted had not been before the electors in December last, and urged that the Government should be called upon to resign and submit its legislation to the electors. Regarding the extension of the life of Parliament, Mr Holland said he was fully convinced that the clause was unconstitutional. The members of Parliament were elected for three years and no longer, and they had no constitutional right to extend their own term of office. It was quite within the bounds of possibility that if Parliament sholild run a four years’ course members would find themselves required to refund the honoraria drawn for the fourth year. In that case all the legislation for the fourth year would be ultra vires. This was not the only illegal act of the Government, proceeded Mr Holland. The reductions made from the pensions, etc., before the passage of the National Expenditure Adjustment Bill were glaringly. unlawful. Condemning the Government for its failure to make adequate provision for meeting the unemployment problem, he said that the utmost confusion had prevailed in the Government’s introduc tion of its legislation, and this was now even more prevalent in its administration. Indeed, New Zealand had never laboured under the misfortune of a more unbusinesslike Government. This fact was emphasised by the manner in which the old and new schemes of the Unemployment Board were being handled. No one could say when the new scheme would become fully operative. They had the old scheme operating in some centres and the new scheme in others; consequently there was not only confusion but widespread dissatisfaction and unrest. As a concrete example of this muddle they had the farcical methods adopted in connection with the work of the Women’s Committee set up by the board. When the committee visited Buller recently it came in an atmosphere of virtual secrecy. The Mayor of Westport was given about three hours’ notice by telephone and the industrial unions with female memberships were in no way communicated with. The committee was back in Wellington before tho unions knew of itsvisit. The amount expended on the trip was money thrown away. There was nothing more shameful, continued Mr Holland, than the Government’s attack on the public servants. Clause 62 of the Finance Bill embodied a gratuitous insult to every member of the public service, and its sinister meaning was now indicated by the Government’s latest outburst against the employees of the Postal Department and its banning of the Katipo. The refusal to give further official recognition to the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association rvas clearly the outcome of a fear that because of the class nature of its legislation affecting the public servants tho Government was losing the votes of many postal employees. The Katipo’s only offence was it had offered fair and wholesome criticism of legislation which affected the lives and well-being of the men and women in the public service. Mr Massey°had on one occasion carried a measure through the House to enable the public servants to stand for Parliament without loss of status, and Mr Forbes had both spoken and voted in support of free political rights for public servants. Now, both Reform and United members were seeking to deprive the public servants of every right to secure the redress of their grievances by constitutional methods. He (Mr Holland) was confident, notwithstanding the irrational methods now being adopted by the Government, that the Post and Telegraph employees would continue to give the same loyal and capable service to the people as they had done in the past. He was equally confident that they would insist on- their constitutional right to maintain their organisation and its official journal. No Government, Mr Holland declared, should be permitted to introduce terrorism into its relationship with the employees of the State because of differing political viewpoints. In any case the duty of good citizenship must be regarded as the first attribute of a public servant, and good citizenship did not consist in silent acquiescence when the public wellbeing was threatened by subversive legislation. Mr Holland denounced the annual payment of £IOO,OOO towards the Singapore base account as a criminal waste of money at a time when there was such widespread hunger and want in the homes of the people. He was not prepared to believe that the British Government would be so utterly callous as to insist on payment if the position in New Zealand were honestly •represented to it. In any case the Singapore base could only bo regarded as creating an atmosphere of fear that might easily prove a factor in the precipitation of war in the near future. A resolution was carried: “ That in view of the fact that the Government’s legislation of last session abolishing compulsory arbitration, reducing wages and pensions, and extending the life of the present Parliament was not an issue at the last election, in the opinion of this meeting the Government should resign and submit its policy to the electors.”