“UTTER NONSENSE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 963, 5 May 1930, Page 11

“UTTER NONSENSE”

“NO GENERAL ELECTION,” ! SAYS LEADER UNITED’S “CRY” ATTACKED ‘ Mr. Endean lias made a serious charge against the Government, a charge which, if it were sustained, should be sufficient to put any Government out of office,” said Mr. H. E. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, in his address at the Remuera Tlall on Saturday evening, in support of Mr. Blood worth. “IT© said that it is recognised that the United Party is dominated by the Labour Party and if anyone wishes to have any matter adjusted in Wellington he is told to see the Labour Party. In making an assertion like that, Mr. Endean must have specific cases, and I challenge him to produce all the specific cases he knows of,” said Mr. Holland. It was utter nonsense for the members of the United Party to say that if this by-election went against United it would probably result in a general election. The position would not be altered at all. It would have been just the same if Mr. Jenkins had never com© to his famous conclusion that no honest man could follow the United Party. It would have been the same if he had never taken that double somersault. Continuing, Mr. Holland said that Mr. Donald had stated that Mr. Bloodworth had not taken the electors into his confidence. It was quite obvious that Mr. Donald had not read the Labour Party’s platform and if he had he certainly did not understand it. Like Mr. Endean, he had said that the return of Labour could only result in disaster. Yet that was indeed a funny thing to say. when he told you that the very best things tho United Party had don© since it assumed office had been done at tlie instigation of Labour. CO-OPERATION IN INDUSTRY A few years ago the farmers had endeavoured to build up a co-operative marketing scheme for primary products, and if this had succeeded it would have meant a better return to tho producers in New Zealand, as well as placing a more cheaply priced commodity upon the English market. Then Mr. Coates appeared on the scene and when people did not know' what was happening the scheme fell through. One of the most important things today was to have a scheme of co-operative marketing. The present Labour Government in England was in sympathy with such a scheme and a Labour Government in New Zealand would be able to work in harmony with England. This did not apply merely to the production of butter, but to all social services. Where men were providing social services their various interests were linked together and it was this fact which had lifted the Labour vote from 50,000 in 1914 to 200,000 in 191 S. Several South Island lines had been carried a certain distance, and every mil© of their construction had been authorised by the lief or m Party, which was now attacking the Government for building unnecessary lines. Reform had a lot to explain. Mr. Massey and Mr. Coates, then Minister of Public Works, had personally assured settlers in tlio Nelson Province that their railway would -be completed and the Reform Government had also given an assurance that the South Island main trunk line would go through. A Voice: Why did they not complete it? Mr. Holland: Oh. T do not know. Their ways are like the ways of providence — Asking that the Labour Party should bo given the opportunity which other parties had had to conduct the affairs of the country, Mr. Holland instanced the Labour Governments in Great Britain and Australia, which he declared were the best governments which those countries had ever v had. By giving the Parnell seat to Labour the electors would strengthen the party in the. House and would give fresh hope and courage to the Labour movement in New Zealand. Concerning military defence, Mr. Holland said that thousands and thousands of young boys had been brought to the courts as a consequence of the present system, and some of the most higli-minded boys in the country had been deprived of their civil rights because they had deep religious convictions. These boys were prosecuted time and time again. They paid the fine or penalty of imprisonment, but when this was done they had their civil rights taken away for 10 years. ‘ The worst criminal in the country, after paying his penalty, emerges from prison a free citizen, with all his civil rights restored.”