“RUNNING AWAY”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26471, 27 May 1947, Page 4

“RUNNING AWAY”

GOVERNMENT INDICTED LAWS MUSf BE UPHELD STRONG ATTACK BY MR HOLLAND P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, May 26. An assertion that the present Government had shown itself incapable oi governing was made by the Leader of. the Opposition, Mr Holland, when he spoke at New Brighton in the Avon by-election campaign this evening. “ New Zealand wants a Government that will not be pushed around,” lie said. Mr Holland said New Zealanders had prided themselves on their industrial legislation, which had been hailed as a model for the world. He thought 95 per cent, of the workers wanted peace and were sick of wrangling, trouble and dissension. The pity was that they had allowed control of some important unions to fall into the hands of men who had no regard for the observance of laws.’, Mr Holland gave a list of industrial troubles since the last election, remarking that the Wanganella was the worst blot. A voice: That was private enterprise. Mr Holland: No. It was the wreckers who want to wreck this country. What the country wants is a Government that will take them on. “ The Government must dispense justice fairly and even-handedly," Mr Holland said. “Any Government which runs away from the responsibility of administering the laws is unfit to govern. This Government ran away at Huntly, and it has not stopped running since.” Mr Holland said there were men who wanted to wreck the British way of life in New Zealand and substitute some foreign form based on the Soviet plan. They had no respect for weakkneed legislators and no regard for the public welfare. They had been able to establish that they could get better results for their unions by defying the law than by observing it. The time had come when the law should be upheld by the Government, with the people behind it. No one solution would fit every case, but the National Party had a comprehensive policy for improving industrial relations. Answering a question, Mr Holland said the National Party would not abolish the Arbitration Court. _ The action taken during the depression had been one of the worst mistakes made by the Coalition Government. He doubted whether any member of that Government would do it again.