COULD NOT AFFORD TO OUST UNITED.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19231, 19 November 1930, Page 4

COULD NOT AFFORD TO OUST UNITED.

MR HOWARD REVIEWS WORK OF LAST SESSION. The Unemployment Bill and work during the last session of Parliament were subjects dealt with by Mr E. J. Howard, Labour member for Christchurch South, in an address in the Dickens Street Hall last night. The hall was crowded. The chairman (Mr George Manning) expressed pleasure at the large attendance, denoting the interest taken by people in the welfare of the country. This was Mr Howard’s eleventh year in Parliament. Mr Howard said that it was regretted that the session had begun with the death of three knights, Sir Joseph Ward, Sir George Hunter and Sir Maui Pomare. The 1930 session was a peculiar one from many points of view. It was begun with a commercial man, upon whose death a farmer took office. Both were “ good fellows,’* but it was noticeable that the characteristic pessimism of a farmer became evident as soon as Sir Joseph Ward's successor took the Premiership. That pessimism \vas overdone, and had had a deep reflection on the public outlook. The dreary outlook traced by the Right Hon G. W. Forbes was in marked contrast to the optimistic utterances of the late Sir Joseph Ward during the Parnell by-election. The Concluding Stages. During the early part of the session there was a lack of “go ** in Parliament, and no one seemed to be at the head of affairs. Towards the end the members scarcely had any sleep, Bills being rushed through in a way which gave no one an opportunity of understanding them properly. Frayed tempers were the order, and the session ended in a fit of temper, the like of which the speaker had not seen before. The Labour Party knew that with its support the Liberals could carry anything through the House. The United Party promised this session to help the unemployed, but when the Hon W. A. Veitch took over the portfolio of Minister of Railways he began discharging men. In spite of promises by the Government, there was no improvement in the position of the unemployed. Mr Forbes’s promise not to discharge any more railwaymen until he returned from the Imperial Conference had not been honoured. The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was interfered w'ith, and on all fundamental questions the two main parties in the House combined. _ They always did. in spite of the staging of a bogus fight. A voice: And that’s the party you support. Mr Howard: We did not support the party. We supported legislation. Reform Party and Wages.

The Reform Party had said it stood for a reduction of wages, but the United Party had promised not to reduce them. In those circumstances Labour could not afford to oust United unless there was an undertaking that they would go to the country. If there were an election the speaker was confident that the Government would be ousted neck and crop. Reform was eager for Labour to defeat the Unemployment Bill, but Labour could not afford to do that, _in spite of the United Party not having “played the game”' by the Bill. The Bill would benefit the farmer and not the unemployed, for farmers would get money at low rates of interest for improvements carried out by cheap labour.