SULLIVAN WAXES CAUSTIC AS COATES CRITIC.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17880, 23 June 1926, Page 13

SULLIVAN WAXES CAUSTIC AS COATES CRITIC.

TRANSCENDANT GENIUS ” FAILS TO GET THINGS DONE AS PROMISED. (Special to the “ Star.") WELLINGTON, June ,22. One of the pre-election statements concerning the Prime Minister was made use of by Mr D. G. Sullivan in the House to-night to give point to his criticism of the Government in respect to the unemployment problem. One of those huge advertisements published before the election, said Mr Sullivan, appeared with a very excellent picture of the Prime Minister at its head. lie then proceeded to quote from the advertisement the statement that unemployment was at a minimum and that the prospects of employment were never brighter. “While on the one hand,” he said, “we have the Minister of Labour practically repudiating the responsibility of the Government £n regard to the handling of the unemployment problem and its solution, we have the Prime Minister and his ad-vertisement-writers during the election claiming credit on behalf of the Government for never adopting a policy that would restrain employment. The leader of the Opposition (Mr 11. E. Holland) : And therefore accepting the responsibility. The Prime Minister: We claim a ccr tain amount of responsibility. “The Government can’t plav with a two-headed penny,” declared Mr Sullivan. The Government, he said, should acknowledge its failure to take the responsibility and to deal with the resent position. “Then we have this glorious paragraph,” he said, referring again to the newspaper advertisement. “The Prime Minister will listen with very great interest indeed: ‘At the head of the Government of the country is a new and arresting figure—a comparatively young man, who has already won for himself a popular designation of the “Man who gets things done.” ’ A voice from the Reform benches: What's wrong with that? “What's wrong with it,” Mr Sullivan replied, “is that with the very first serious problem with which the country is confronted since the attainment of office bv the Right Honorable Gentleman, this outbreak of unemployment, we find that the position is either bungled by the Government, which is incompetent to handle the problem, or else we find the Government lacking in a proper appreciation of the seriousness of the problem and what it means to the individual workers, who are out of employment. “This transcendent genius,” lie continued, “is alleged to possess united in his great character all the good qualities and none of the bad ones of all the. great statesmen we have had in this country. In view of this extraordinary claim we have some justification in being astonished that at the very first problem that has presented itself we find he has failed to deal with it.” Mr Coates: T am reading almost word for word of what you are saying from the Proletarian Press of Auckland. Mr Holland: Is not that one of the prohibited publications you have got possession of''