NEW LEGISLATION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 458, 20 May 1932, Page 4

NEW LEGISLATION.

Labour Leader’s Attack on Coalition. GOVERNMENT SHOULD RESIGN. (Special to the “ Star.”) WESTPORT, May 19. A strong attack on the Government and its legislation of last session was launched here this evening by Mr 11. E. Holland, M.P., leader of the Opposition, who addressed a crowded meeting in the Town Hall. He urged that the Government should be called on to resign and submit its legislation to the electors. Regarding the extension of the life of Parliament, Mr Holland said he . was fully convinced

that the clause was unconstitutional. Members of Parliament were elected for three years and no longer, and they had no constitutional .right to extend their ow-n term of office. It was quite within the bounds of possibility that if Parliament should run a four-years’ course, members would

find themselves required to refund the honoraria drawn for the fourth year. In that case all the legislation for the fourth year would be ultra vires. This was not the only illegal act of the Government. The deductions made from pensions before the passage of the National Expenditure Adjustment Bill were glaringly unlawful. Unemployment. Condemning the Government for its failure to make adequate provision for meeting the unemployment problem, Mr Holland said the utmost confusion had prevailed in the Government’s introduction of its legislation and was now even more prevalent in its administration; indeed, New Zealand had never laboured under the misfortune of a more unbusinesslike Government. The Public Service. There was nothing more shameful than the Government’s attack on public servants. Clause 62 of the Finance Bill embodied a gratuitous insult to every member of the public service, and its sinister meaning was now indicated by the Government’s latest outburst against the employees of the postal department, and its banning of the “ Katipo.” The refusal to give further official recognition to the Post and Telegraph Employees’ Association was clearly the outcome of a fear that because of the class nature of its legislation affecting public servants the Government was losing the votes of many postal employees. The “ Katipo’s” onlyoffence was that it had offered fair and wholesome criticism of legislation which affected the lives and well-being of men and women in the public service. Mr Holland denounced the annual payment of £IOO,OOO on the Singapore base account as a criminal waste of money at a time when there was such widespread hunger and want in the homes of the people. He was not prepared to believe that the British Government would be so utterly callous as to insist on this payment if the position in New Zealand were honestlyrepresented to it. In any case the Singapore base could only be regarded as the creation and creator of an atmosphere of fear that might easily prove a factor in the precipitation of war in the days of the near future. A motion was carried, “ That in view of the fact that the Government’s legislation of last session abolishing compulsory arbitration, reducing wages and pensions, and extending the life of the present Parliament was not an issue at last election, in the opinion of this' meeting the Government should resign : and submit its policy to the electors.”