LABOUR’S REMEDIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 June 1935, Page 4

LABOUR’S REMEDIES.

The Leader of the Opposition has once more condemned the Government’s policy and the legislation passed last .session for the relief of the farming industry. Mr. Savage is a firm believer in the political doctrine that the first duty of an Opposition in any Parliament is to oppose. He has acted consistently on that principle, and it is one easy to maintain while criticism does not carry with it the responsibility of devising a more satisfactory plan than the one criticised. Mr. Savage considers dictatorship and inquisitorial methods will be the outcome of the recent farm relief legislation. Apparently even he has recognised the foolishness of the charge made by some of his followers that those who seek relief will “become the serfs” of the Government or of some other authority the critics of the Ministry are wise enough not to indicate too definitely. Mr. Savage is too experienced a politician riot to be aware that there is only one way in which legislation can be swayed, and that is by public opinion expressed at the Parliamentary elections. At present the voting strength of the rural community is arbitrarily increased by 28 per cent. Does the party of which Mr. Savage is the Parliamentary leader propose to interfere with that arrangement if it obtains office and thereby weaken the farmers’ influence in the national councils of the Dominion? A definite reply on this importarit matter would give the farming community an idea of what support of the Labour Party might mean to its voting strength. Airy statements about guaranteed prices, universal pensions, adjustment of mortgages and the issue of State promissory notes to-pay for these and ether privileges may be good for platform oratory. The franchise is a more practical question, and one to which the Labour Party should have no difficulty in giving a clear and prompt reply.