The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1931. MR HOLLAND REPROVES.

Southland Times, Issue 21560, 25 November 1931, Page 6

The Southland Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1931. MR HOLLAND REPROVES.

Mr Holland, the leader of the Labour Party, does not appear to advantage in the robes of an indignant Virtue reproving the sinful Prime Minister, especially when taking this course he himself commits the sins he denounces. At Palmerston North Mr Holland charged Mr Forbes with having made contradictory statements concerning the importation of coal by the Railways Department, inferring that the Prime Minister was misleading the publie. He also said that Mr Forbes’s statements had contradicted those made by Mr Veitch. It is surprising that the Leader of the Opposition should have such a poor understanding of the facts in connection with this matter, especially as it was rather fully discussed in Parliament in September. The genesis of this matter is an inquiry by Mr Holland of the Prime Minister asking why coal was being imported from Australia. Mr Forbes answered that the coal was required for open-air depots. Air Holland then pursued his inquiries, anxious to know why New Zealand coal could not be used for this purpose,, and Air Veitch, as Afin-

i istcr of Railways, declared that owing to the irregularity of supply from the West Coast mines, importations were necessary. There was no contradiction here —the second answer amplified the first. Later Mr Holland referred to the conditions of the West Cbast miners and blamed the Government for importing coal when the miners were not working full time. The Hon. S. G. Smith (then Minister of Labour) replied by showing that many interruptions at the mines had been caused by the miners’ unions, sometimes for serious and sometimes for absurdly trivial reasons, and when Mr Holland referred to time lost through an insufficiency of orders. Mr Murdoch (then Minister of Mines) completed the story of the time lost through the unions’ actions. It was to this discussion that Mr Forbes was referring when he said recently that the importation of coal had been rendered necessary because of the miners’ actions. That was not a contradiction of either of the oilier answers. So far as the Railways Department was concerned, it did not matter who caused the irregularity of supply —it had to obtain the coal, especially as there had been threats of further trouble. If the mines lost time through lack of orders —and undoubtedly they did —most people would imagine that the unions would be anxious to avoid any other losses, but the time lost through the actions of the men was considerable, as the statement in the House showed. Mr Holland surely is not so dense that he cannot appreciate the point that the answers given by Mr Forbes and Air Veitch are not contradictory. When he says they are he suggests either that the public has a poor opinion of liis intelligence or lie has a poorer one of theirs. It is clear that the companies were suffering from a dearth of orders, so obviously they were not responsible for irregular supplies, and the Government,’which had stuck to the policy of using New Zealand coal as much as possible, was hardly likely to reverse that policy without good cause. The cause was the irregularity of supply at a time when it was necessary that the Railways Department's stocks should be protected. A series of interruptions at the mines contributed, to put the matter mildly, to the causes of this irregularity of supply, as a result of which importations of between 40,000 and 60,000 tons were necessary to protect the interests of the whole community. Air Holland is a good talker, and on the platform he is persuasive, but his methods are questionable, and his material unreliable, as an analysis of it almost invariably shows.