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Hokitika Guardian, 23 July 1928, Page 2

Tim progress of business in the House this session finds the Labour party 7 as active and ns talkative as ever. It is evidently the desire- to utilise tlio opportunity to the fullest for publicity’ purposes. One of the serious mistakes of the Labour party has been to thrash the Samoan question quite beyond the limit. .Mr Holland lias made quite .a false move in this respect, and. bis attempts to revive the question and his line of criticism are surely miscarrying. His effort to attribute all kinds of bad influences to the Government in directing the affairs of Samoa has quite missed fire, and he is losing caste by persisting along a line of argument at once palpably foreign to tile true position. While this is so-, Mr Coates lias been able to score off Mr'Holland by holding up the Lender of the Opposition in the true light as one of the prime causes for keeping the Samoan question in a difficult position, and prevents the issue .simmering down. Mr Holland can be attempting only to make political capital, and this is being realised and the ultimate result will be a more gcncrai reaction against the tactics of the Labour party. In other respects Parliament is proceeding oil the usual lines. The Prime Minister is holding his own with greater confidence and more positive asertion in all the leading debates, and the prestige of the party is certainly improving in that respect. Tf the session is to be as short as lias been suggested in some quarters, 111!= week should see the House settle down to the more serious work of the session. Now that the preliminary skirmishing lias been disposed, the resort to important puljlic business should now be possible.