“A NEW MESSIAH”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 12

“A NEW MESSIAH”

ADVENT OF MR DOIDGE LABOUR MEMBER’S JIBES PAST STATEMENTS RECALLED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, July 11. “ The new Messiah has arrived and the new Messiah has spoken,” said Mr A. G. Osborne (Govt., Onehunga), referring to Mr F. W. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga), whom he followed in the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives to-night. Members had been looking forward to Mr Doidge’s maiden speech, Mr Osborne said, and the “ Beaverbrook stunt artist ” had done his work well, for the fact that he was to take part in the debate that night had been made known with a blare of trumpets from one end of the Dominion to the other.

Mr Osborne devoted his speech largely to recounting the previous political activities and utterances of Mr Doidge. In 1935, when an Independent candidate for the Rotorua seat, he had referred to “ party hacks,” Mr Osborne said, and was thus now in a position which he had deplored then. Mr Doidge in 1935 had said that Mr Coates had “ pretty well boxed the political compass,” but he had done the same thing himself. On September 25, 1935, he had said: “ In New Zealand we were under Soviet rule and Mr Coates was the head of the Soviet. Somewhere in the background was a Prime Minister who played the part of a rubber stamp,” and again “Mr Coates is a fine figure of a man but does anyone suggest that is of Prime Ministerial quality? ” Another reported utterance by Mr Doidge in the 1935 campaign quoted by Mr Osborne was that neither Mr Forbes nor Mr Coates measured up to the calibre of Seddon, Massey and Ward. Mr Forbes (Opposition, Hurunui): Hear, hear!