WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1933, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

■ , , LAST WORDS. (Special Correspondent.) . ~ WELLINGTON, September 11. IJ is four speeches in the Lyttelton electorate on Saturday in the interests of the Coalition Party seem to have contained:'all there was for the Minister of Finance to say concerning the pressing affairs of the Dominion. That in a single day, after spending a night vn ,-tl.io' passage between Wellington and Lyttelton; he should bo able to deliver addresses at Little River, Davauchelle, Alvaroa, ami Opawa to critical .audiences' shows that he sparing neither himself nor his. cause in •upholding his obligations. His speeches probably were a little over the heads of some of the members of his ,audiences, hut his personal appeal will have led but little of its point on that account. The, morning paper pays him an appropriate- compliment for a useful summary of the Government’s motives and actions in seeking to meet and alleviate the troubles of the country. In reviewing the situation this authority, not, inopportunely directs attention to the defects besetting the country. “In such straits,” it sa>s, ' referring t 0 the difficulties which surround the country, “it is natural that j acute differences should develop as-to the correct course to- pursue. In the 1 Lyttelton ' by-election, for instance, ’ spokesmen of the Labour Party have recommended- the policy, or one particular part of the policy, adopted by President Roosevelt in the United

States. In citing the American exatnule they ignore : the dark depths into which the American people descended, and of which New- Zealanders bv comparison know nothing, .and also the fact that; the recovery plan has vet to prove a success.” To this ohser vat,ion the morning .paper adds wisely that, the recovery plan still has to prove itself in New York. Speaking on Saturday evening at Cashmere, one of the suburbs of Christchurch and ope of the electoral districts of Lyttelton, Mr Holland, Leader of the Opposition, promptly denounce' the Coalition Government and all works in a style that is not at all likely to, assist the lady-who is con testing the seat on behalf of the Lahour Party. -‘The last budgetary statement placed- before the House by the acting Prime Minister, the Right Hon. j (p Coates.’,’ he told his audience, “showed that the Coalition Government had been living on pape r issues, which

i in the main took the form of Treasury 1 .revenue • and redemption bills.” Miter I pausing for breath Mr Holland an- } enounced to his hearers that the Coah--1 tion Government had resolved itself in--1 to a body of helpless micawbers who ' had lost dll effective control of the ' .finances of" the 'country and all coni fidence. from the bulk of its people. No one acquainted personally with Mrs (Elizabeth McCombs ard with her association with public affairs will doubt her .ability to do herself jnstme in the House- of Representatives, should she make her way into that august assembly. But in the present contest j -i n which 1 she is engaged she seems to , he actually suffering from the excessive zeal of her friends; Mr Holland, surrounded by a score of his colleagues, appears to have taken complete .charge of Mrs 'McCombs and to have left her with ,no authority beyond the ,dictation of the jparty caucus. Thus js not what the women of this country deserve, nor wluit they desire to, obtain. They want a representative of their, own sex in Parliament who wdl not be shackled bv a ’ body of party politicians. The speeches AD’ Holla«nd 'sr.d his colleagues have ede-

livered during the present campaign suggest that the women representative would be but a. vote. _ . , .