NO INTENTION OF RESIGNING

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 191, 9 May 1940, Page 5

NO INTENTION OF RESIGNING

Position Of Speaker Of House MR. BARNARD’S DECISION (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, -May 8. A declaration that he did not intend to resign from the post of Speaker ol t.he House of Kepresentatives. and that neither he nor Mr. Lee intended to resign their seats, was made by Mr. Barnard in his address’ in lite Town Hall. Stating that he had twice been elected Speaker of the House, and constitutionally by the whole House, Mr. Barnard said his election was for the whole term of Parliament. It was a position he intended to retain. It would have been easier for him to keep out of trouble and do nothing, but, after due consideration, he had decided he could not stand aside and quietly, witness the deterioration of Hie Labour Party, the wilful destruction of democracy and the infiltration of Fascist ideas. The New Zealand Labour Party was not completely Fascist, but it was rapidly going in that direction. For about 18 months there had not been majority rule in caucus; it had not applied in the election of Cabinet and in the question of taking over the Bank of New Zealand.

There was a growing disposition on the part of some Ministers to resent opposition or criticism. Conference was uo longer a body of people who conferred: it was a crowd in which it was possible to indulge in u great deal of “log rolling" and even trickery. He said, quite calmly, that both these principles had been practised at the last two conferences. Issues on which they had been permitted to vote were carefully selected. Full debate was not permitted except in the interests of certain powerful individuals. The forms of democracy were still used, as in Germany and Russia, but he who said anything not favoured was dealt with in a variety of subtle ways. There was increasing dominance of the Labour Party by five or six powerful industrial leaders. There were one or two of them in this city. Delegates to the conference were hand-picked, and those who did not happen to be in the centre had no direct representation. (Cries of dissent.) “I tell you there are 800 members of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union in Hawke’s'Bay with no direct representation,” Mr. Barnard said. “Some of us fought '2O years ago against very great tyranny, and we are not disposed to yield to modern Prussianism in New Zealand today,” he added. A voice: Why bring that up? Mr. Barnard: Oh, I know it is a very uncomfortable thing for some people. The National Party stood for the past, Mr. Barnard added, the Labour Party for the present, and the maintenance of things as they were at present, and the Democratic Labour Party stood for the future.