LABOUR'S VIEW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 118, 21 May 1932, Page 8

LABOUR'S VIEW

WORK OF SESSION LIFE OF PARLIAMENT EXTENSION QUESTIONED [ Per Press Association.] WESTPORT, May 19. Under the auspices of the Unemployed Workers’ Union, Mr. H. E. Hol land, Leader of the Opposition, this evening addressed a crowded meeting in the Westport Town Hall. He reviewed in detail the legislation oi last session, claiming that the measures enacted had not been before the electors in December last, and urging that the Government be called upon 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, tyid they had no constitutional right to extend their own term of office. It was quite within the bounds of possibility that if Parliament should run a four-year course members would find themselves re quired to refund the honoraria drawn tor the fourth year. In that case all legislation for the fourth would .bo ultra vires. This was not the only illegal act oi the Government, he claimed. Deductions made from pensions, etc., before the passage of the National Expenditure Adjustment Bill were glaringly unlawful “Utmost Confusion” Condemning the Government for its failure to make adequate provision for meeting the unemployment problem, he 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 a more unbusinesslike Government. This fact was emphasised by the manner in which the old and new schemes of the Unemployment Board were now being handled/ No one could say when the new scheme would become fully operative. They had the old scheme operating in some centres, and the new scheme in others. Consequently there was not only confusion but widespread dissatisfaction and unrest. As a com crete example of this muddle, they had the farcical methods adopted in connection with the work of the Women ’? Committee set up by the board. When the committee visited the Buller recenlv it came in an atmosphere ot virtual secrecy. The Mayor of Westport was given about three hours’ notice by telephone, and industrial unions with female membership were in no way communicated with. The committee was back in before the unions knew of its visit. The amount expended on the trip was money thrown away.

P. and T. Employees There was nothing more shameful than the Government’s attack on the Public Servants, Mr. Holland continued. Clause 62 of the Finance Bill embodied a gratuitous insult to every member of the Public Service, and its sinister meaping 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 the fear that because of the, class nature of its legislation affecting the public servants the Government was losing the votes of many postal employees. The Katipo’s only offence was that it had offered a fair and wholesome criticism of the legislation which affected the lives and well-being of the men and women in the Public Service. The late Mr. Massey on one occasion carried a measure through the House to enable public servants to stand for Parliament without loss of status, and Mr. Forbes had both spoken aud voted in support of full political rights for public servants. Now both Reformersand Uniteds were seeking to deprive public servants of every right to secure redress of their grievances by constitutional methods. He (Mr. Holland) was confident, notwithstanding 'the irritational methods now being adopted by the Government, that the Post and Telegraph employees would continue to give the same loyal and capable service to the public as in the past. He was equally confident they would insist on their constitutional right to maintain their organisation and its official journal. No Government should be permitted to introduce terrorism into its relationships with employees of the State because of differing political viewpoint. In any case, the duty of good citizenship must be regarded as the first attribute of a public servant, and good citizenship did not consist in silent acquiescence when 1 the public well-being was threatened by subversive legislation. Singapore Base Mr. Holland denounced the annual payment of £lOO,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 honestly represented 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.

The meeting carried the following motion: —“That in view of the fact that the Government’s legislation ot 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.”