NO-CONFIDENCE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 243, 15 October 1942, Page 5

NO-CONFIDENCE

0PP0SITI0N M0TI0N GOVERNMENT AMENDMENT LIVELY DEBATE IN HOUSE.

P.A.

WELLINGTON, Oct. 15.

Immediately the House of Representalives met yesterday afternoon the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, gave notice of a no-confidence motion. The debate was opened in the evening, and the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, who followed Mr Holland, replied with an amendment inviting the House to pledge its loyalty to the Government and the War Cabinet in the war effort. The debate, in which two other speakers took part, will be continued to-day. Mr Holland's motion was as follows: "Having regard to the handling of certain questions and the effect on the country 's war effort, this House has no confidence in the Government." A lively debate ensued. Mr Holland criticised the methods adopted by the Government in dealing with the Waikato mining strike, and he also attacked the censorship system. He said that the country was entitled to the fullest information as to the circumstances which had led up to the resignation of four National Party Ministers from the War Ad« ministration. "The Government conceded to the miners more than what they struck for," said Mr Holland. "In my opinion 13,000 dairy-farmers have been robbed of their mines, for two of the largest mines are owned by the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd. These dairy-farmers have a right to a say in the management of their own affairs, and they have had this right taken from them because 1300 miners broke the law. The responsibility for the government of this country has passed from the elected representatives of the people to men guilty of breaking the law and holding up the war effort." MAKING LAW A MOCKERY. "I was asked to do things . that strike a blow at British justice and to agree with things that make the law of this country a mockery," said Mr Holland. "I was asked to bow to what has been deseribed by Ministers on the other side of the House as an irresponsible minority, industrial wreckers, enemies of the State and those who played the Japanese game. Those who asked that of me asked the impossible. I took the only course possible if I were to retain my self-respect. I was not prepared to subordinate principle for expediency." Mr Holland said the Prime Minister had done him an injustice when he had said that no alternatives had been advanced to the action of the Government. "I did put forward alternatives," he said. "I suggested that coal-mining be declared a war industry; that the same conditions apply to the miners as to the soldiers in camps. I urged that strong action be taken and that the ringleaders oi the strike be immediately arrested and incarcerated. I believe that had that been done the strike would have been settled in 24 hours. I favoured giving the miners 48 hours to get back to work or putting them into camp. Properly handled with firmness and resolution by the imprisonment of the wreckers and ringleaders the strike could have been broken." MR FRASER REPLIES. Rising to reply to the Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, mpved the following amendment: — "This House pledges anew its united and wholehearted support for the Government and the War Cabinet in the conduct of the war effort, and expresses its determination as representatives of all the people in the Dominion to prosecute that war effort with singleness of purpose and undiminished energy until victory for the eause of democracy and freedom is won." "In moving this amendment," said the Prime Minister, "I feel certain that it will more thoroughly represent the wishes and hearts of the people than would the motion. As I listened to the Leader of the Opposition I wondered if what I heard was really in the New Zealand House of Representatives with the Japanese only a few hundred miles away. I also wondered what had been the directing keynote of the honourable gentleman's utterances and the inspiration of his actions." The Prime Minister said that the honourable gentleman's heart bled for the mine owners because for the duration of the war they were sharing control instead of having absolute control. That was not robbing them of the mines, as the Leader of the Opposition had declared it to be. The mines were theirs and would be theirs at the end of the war. It was

wrong, aecording to the Leader of the Opposition, to control mines, but it was not wrong to control lives and take young men and send them to fight and die for us. The Government had to decide what was in the best interests of the country. "We were within a few days of the complete collapse of the dairy industry in the Waikato," said Mr Fraser, "and we had urgent representations from the dairy industry and from all over the country to get the mines working and the eoal supply coming forward again. The action of the Leader of the Opposition showed a lack of comprehension of the issues at stake. "If anyone claimed that the idea of control of the mines originated with the miners and that control had been introduced as a bribe to the miners, then they were certainly incorrect," said the Prime Minister. The men were misled by a few, and that misleadership did not give a chance to I the magistrate, who did his best to avoid sentencing the men. That was the outlook of the Government, the War Cabinet, and ihe vast majority of the people of this country. If the law should be enforoed against 189 miners, then the law must be upheld against the lot, and another 900 to 1000 put ip jail. "Whatever happened, I take full responsibility for asking that the operation of the sentences be suspended till another method could be explored to get the men to see reason," said Mr Fraser. "Does the majesty of the law demand that in all circumstances sentences must be served? It is part of our Constitution that sentences can be revoked, suspended, or a complete pardon given." The Government acted aecording to precedent, not only in this country but elsewliere. The Government was not dealing with men who were essentially criminals, but ordinary decent citizens who had done

wrong. Many of them had sons fighting dverseas and were they to be outlawed because they had been led to do wrong? After referring to the proposals for the resumption of work at the mines, Mr Fraser said that the mine-owners had agreed with the control regulations on every point but one, and that was the clause relating to the casting vote of the Minister for Mines as chairman of the control board. "I have never known so much harrn done with so little cause," said Mr Fraser. "The whole basis of unity has been destroyed. I regret the attitude of the men, I regret the miners forced the magistrate to impose sentence, and I regret that Ministers emulated miners who had struck because one of them could not get his own way." The Minister for Mines, Mr Webb, said the Leader of the Opposition's alternative was to bring in the mili tary forces, He apparently did not appreciate that one could not drive miners to produce coal with ma-chine-guns. Had his course been followed there would have been civil war. Had the miners been. put in prison the* workers throughout the country would have come out on strike and chaos would have resulted. He defended the Government's action as being the only way out of a difficult situation.