LABOUR PARTY AND THE CUT.

Southland Times, Issue 21362, 7 April 1931, Page 5

LABOUR PARTY AND THE CUT.

To the Editor. Sir, —One of. the most disgraceful incidents in the history of New Zealand politics occurred in Parliament on Wednesday last. .The Labour Party (so-called) had been stonewalling to dupe the .public servants and workers into a belief that, if there were a Labour Government in office, there would be no reduction of wages. Mr Coates had stated that .he. and his party were reluctantly driven. to the conclusion that a cut was inevitable; but he would move an amendment providing for relief to the family man on a. salary below £3ob. His proposal was to reduce the cut by 2J per ’cent, for each child in such cases. However, when the clause was reached the Labour Party dashed in to move the very amendment which Mr .Coates had suggested. This was merely a piece of parliamentary “sharp practice”; for the Labour Party, by moving Mr Coates’ amendment, prevented the Reform Party from supporting it —unless the Reform Party was prepared to put Mr Holland into office, for that was what it would have meant. Thus the Labour Party, despite all its pretence of defending the public servants, was once again guilty of sacrificing them for the'sake of political advantage. It may have been a clever move from the standpoint of party tactics; but the public servants are not so easily fooled, and we shall remember how the Labour Party prevented the family man from receiving relief from the cut.—l am, etc., PUBLIC SERVANT. Wellington, April 2, 1931.