PROGRAMME FOR SESSION.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 19092, 26 January 1932, Page 6

PROGRAMME FOR SESSION.

SECRECY CONDEMNED, LABOUR LEADER’S COMPLAINX By Telegraph—Press Association GREYMOUTH, Jan. 25. Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, is engaged in a tour of the Buller electorate, and at the week-end addressed largely attended meetings at Tiroroa, Blackwater, and Waluta. Ht received unanimous votes of thanki and renewed confidence at each place. Speaking at the Miners’ Hall at Waluta, Mr Holland reviewed the leglsla* ticn of last session, and devoted some attention to the forthcoming meeting of Parliament. He said it was somewhat peculiar that while the Government was convening an emergency session, no indication whatever was furnished of the nature of the proposals to be submitted fpr consideration, and members pould, only make guesses, based on pre-election pronouncements of Cabinet Ministers, as to what these would amount to. The Prime Minister had forecasted an attack on education, and the destruction .of existing Arbitration Court awards and agreements. Mr Coates had suggested the possibility of an addition to the wages tax of another twopence in the pound, and further wage reductions; while Mr W. Downie Stewart had given a significant hint that pensions reductions “might at any time become an imperative necessity.” These items, if embodied in the Government programme, could only result in accentuating the present difficulties of the Dominion. If they were to constitute part of the programme for the session, the fact should be made known without further delay. Members of Parliament and the country generally, should also be made acquainted with the essential features of any proposed new legislation in relation to unemployment, which had become the outstanding problem in the national life of the Dominion. Indeed, the real purpose of the session should be a comprehensive rehabilitation policy with work for unemployed and restoration of purchasing power as its central feature. Such a policy would mean the economic salvation of the country, and benefit every section of the community. To persist in making the Government policy a matter of secrecy, pending His Excellency’s speech at the opening of Parliament, would certainly not tend to shorten the session.