LABOUR POLICY ATTACKED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22184, 30 January 1942, Page 4

LABOUR POLICY ATTACKED

Mr Holland Addresses Temuka Electors Enormous Burden Placed On Farmers Criticism of th? Labour Government's policy in regard to unemployment work, financial policy generally, use of the radio, the value placed on the work of labourers as compared with farmers, and the censorship, was offered by Mr S. G. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, in a speech in support of Mr J. Aclqnd, National candidate in the coming by-election, Mr Holland was given a good reception by the large audience. “During the period of the present Government’s term Of office it has spent more than £29,000,000 on unemployment, and what have we got to show for it?” asked Mr Holland. Farm workers have been enticed to leave the farms with higher wages and shorter hours, and farmers and others had been taxed to pay men to chip weeds in the city streets. “I am sure the people are now realising that this sort of thing cannot go on,” said Mr Holland. “We will never improve the lot of the wage earner by pulling down the lot of the wage payer, useless work is degrading, and most men would far rather do work of value to the community than rake up leaves and watch them blow away again." Workers Praised Mr Holland paid a tribute to the working people of New Zealand. “As a working man,” said Mr Holland, “I think I know the working people of New Zealand are 95 per cent decent, honourable, hard working men and women, anxious to do a decent day’s work for a fair day’s pay. Unfortunately the remaining five per cent consist of imported trouble makers, who should be dealt with as disturbers of peace and harmony.” Mr Holland made caustic reference to the repeated use of the radio for propaganda purposes. The present was not a time for appeals, he continued. Rather it was a time for the leadership which was so lacking in the‘ war effort. “Farmers to-day have had enormous loads placed on their shoulders in taking the places of men called up,” said Mr Holland. “Farmers’ wives and daughters, too, had responded magnificently, but there was no overtime pay and no holiday pay for them. New

Zealand’s war effort would be increased if some of the more militant workers took a leaf out of the country people’s books.” In some ways the experiment of a Labour Government had served a useful purpose. The public was now realising that it could not get a quart from a pint pot, said Mr Holland. People were realising that any subsidy paid out by the Government had first of all to be taken from the pockets of the people, and they understood that the people could only receive from the Social Security Fund what the people themselves had paid into that fund. “Do you think it is fair that we should be sending Public Works men overseas on war work at £lO or £l2 a week alongside your boys being paid 7/6?” asked Mr Holland. Attack on Censorship “Why don’t you know about these things? It is because the press is censored. Some time ago the Hon. R. Semple, Minister of Railways, and the Hon. P. C. Webb, Minister of Labour, opened a railway and they thought the event was of such great importance that they connected up the radio throughout New Zealand and let the war news go hang for a while,” said Mr Holland. They talked to each other and entertained the people, he continued, but Mr Webb had been elsewhere since then, but the public had not been told where he had gone. They would be told one day, but the press would not be able to tell them wlien Ministers did other things not so pleasant as the opening of railways. “I believe the people of New Zealand are old and strong enough and prepared to accept the truth," said Mfr Holland. “One thing they can complain about is that the truth is denied them, because it is unpleasant. To-day we have a censorship imposed that is a breach of our democratic system ” A blind man could see the mistakes in the Government’s administration, said Mr Holland, and he was deeply concerned about the Empire and the country, because every day the war continued lives were sacrificed. Although New Zealand had made a magnificent contribution he felt that he should convey his views to the Prime Minister, and he believed the people were interested in the contents of the memorandum he had presented to the War Cabinet. “Was it fair to work 40 hours a week in this country and yet ask Britain and the United States to work longer hours to produce munitions for us?” Mr Holland asked. Would anyone say it was right that in wartime men who dumped produce in the ship’s hold should receive £lO to £l2 a week, while the farm workers who produced the goods received £3? It was not fair, right or just. Would anybody say that the tomfoolery of the men in the mines, freezing works, and abattoirs was in the best interests of the country? a total of 350 strikes had occurred in New Zealand since Labour became the Go vernment. The Labour Government said, when the war began, that strikes must stop. Regulations were passed declaring strikes illegal, but the gaols would not be big enough to hold the offenders. Since the war began 120 strikes had occurred, a little clique of disloyalists were inching the people to defy the Government which had given them a great deal. The Govern ment would get nowhere in the coun try unless it said that the iaw must be regarded, irrespective of creed or party. The Government should take the matter of defiance more seriouslv and he asked the Temuka electors to record their opinion that the Govern ment was not strong enough to handle the situation. Tile Mayor (Mr W. H. McMillan) presided and, in introducing Mr Holland

extended to him a welcome to Temuka on his first visit since he was elected Leader of the National Party. He said he knew the people of Temuka would wish to extend their congratulations to Mr Holland on the honour conferred on him by his colleagues in appointing him their leader.