MOTUEKA CAMPAIGN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17950, 30 November 1932, Page 7

MOTUEKA CAMPAIGN

ECHOES IN THE HOUSE members keen interest LABOR TACTICS CRITICISED (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this clay. With only one more clay to go before polling takes place in the Motueka byelection, members of Parliament are showing a keen interest in the wellare of that district. When the report of the Railways Board was under discussion in the House yesterday, 3Vlr. J. A. Lee (Lab., Grey Lynu) asked what the Government intended to do about the loop-thc-loop line which ran through the district of the gentleman who now had gone to .Motueka to tell the people there how to run the country. . Mr. A. ,D. McLeod (Coal.. Mairarapa): Haven't you been telling the people there how to run the country. Mr. Lee: Yes, but I didn’t tell them to run it in circles. Mr. McLeod is always telling us about the necessity tor cutting costs, but ho forgets the necessity for cutting costs up north. the man who wastes thousands of pounds is now over in Motueka telling the people how to get things done. Referring to transport difficulties m the Motueka electorate. Mr. Lee said he had been travelling through the district, and there was much heart-burning theve. “The Minister for monuments has gone down there —’’ Mr. Speaker: Order! Older! STOOD FOR EXTRAVAGANCE Mr. Lee: The Minister of Public Works, who has scattered monuments to the incompetence of past administrations from one end of this country to the other, has gone down to Motueka to convince the people there that lie will solve the railway problem. Mr. W. J-. Poison (Coal., Stratford), who also has been campaigning in Motueka, said members of the Labor Party had endeavored to convince the people of MotUeka that there was a great need for the expenditure of large sums of money on completing the Midland Railway.* They must know that such expenditure was not justified at a time when no railway in the Dominion was paying, they must know that the Midland Railway would not pay for axle grease. Never once had the Labor Party raised its voice against the socallecl extravagances of the past. Such mis-statements had been made by Labor, speakers during the by-election campaign that it had been necessary for two leading members of the Government to go to Motueka to refute them. A Labor member: Leading speakers? Mr. Poison: Yes, leading speakers. I am not referring to myself in any way. The statements which had been made by Labor speakers down there have been outrageous. . Mr. H. S. S. Kyle (Coal.. Riccarton) said the Labor Party bad always stood tor extravagance in expenditure. Mr. W. J. Jordan (Lib.. Manukau) described Mr. Poison as an excellent showman. He had been billed in Motueka as an excellent showman, and a large number of people went to hear him —-once.