OPPOSITION TACTICS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2325, 5 December 1914, Page 8

OPPOSITION TACTICS

REFORM LEAGUE'S PROTEST OPPOSITION PARTY'S PLIGHT. (By TelesTaph.—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, December 4. 'A mooting representative of all parts of the Auckland Province was held today by the Provincial Executive of the Political Reform League, and tho Prime Minister was present. Frequent reference was made by the' delegates to tho class of tactics employed by the Opposition in the present campaign, and the following resolutions were carried unanimously:— 1. That in.the opinion of this executive the attempts of the Opposition and its ally the Bed Federation to slander the Government in connection with the Huntly disaster is a degradation to the history of political life in New Zealand, and is further evidence of the compact between the Opposition Party and that element which sought to impose a state of terrorism on the Dominion by the strike of 1913, these slanders being akin to the inflammatory mob oratory indulged in by .the I.W.W. agitators. 2. That the organisation of gangs of interjectors, who are told off to interrupt and disturb Government candidates' meetings,- and which gangs are invariably under the leadership of agitators prominent in tho strikes of last year, is a.' deliberate attempt, to interfere with free speech, and is subversive of all the principles of fair play, and emphasises the neeeseity ■ for keeping the Administration of the country out of the hands of the Opposition-Red Federation alliance.

3. That the statements of Sir Joseph Ward at Devonport in connection with the Huntly disaster were groe6 political misrepresentations, and served but to reveal the desperate lengths to which the Opposition-Red Federation alliance is prepared to go. to oust an Administration which dared to uphold law and order and dared to eupport the Arbitration Act. - ■ ' ' 4. That tho evidence of an alliance between the Opposition Party and the Red Federation is overwhelming, and that events at recent meetings in Auckland distinctly show that the Leader of the Opposition is in such extreme plight politically that he- and his party are practically at the dictation of a noisy minority which has gone under various aliases, but is moro properly labelled ; the I.W.W. 5. That in view of the heavy responsibilities and^.arduous duties, devolving upon the Prime Minister and his colleagues during a time of war, the least the Opposition might thave done in ordinary British fair play was to have refrained from the invention of such detestable slanders as its statements in connection with the Huntly disaster ana the Waiuku railway, the Opposition well knowing that its statements in this connection are contrary to fact.