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Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 90, 7 December 1931, Page 3

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(Press. Assn.-

MR. H. E. HOLLAND GIVEN BIG RECEPTION AT . WESTPORT PARTY' S POSITION IMPROVED

— By Telegraph. — Copyright).-

WESTPORT, Saturday. Mr. H. E. Holland, the Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Laour Party, returned to Westport yesterday. He was met several miles out hy a large- concourse, hy whom he was escorted into town. At night he attended the Buller Labour Victory Ball, at which there was a very large attendance. On his entry he was greeted with cheers and the singing of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow." Speaking in response to the welcomeing speech of the president of the Labour Ropresentation CommiLtee, Mr. Holland reviewed the political situation as the election had lef| it. He said the antieipated repercussion of the British election had not , eventuated. The Labour Party had gained some seats, and the Coalition and Independents had gone to the

eountry with 60 seats and come back with 56; the Labour Party had gone out with 20 and had come back with 24. There had been no" substantial change, but Labour alone had improved its position, The seats won, from United by Reform and vice verse involved no fundamental principle; the changes were purely personal. New Zealand now had a-Government with two heads and no policy. The Coalition had asked for and received a blank cheque, and it was now a question of how the blank would be filled in. The position was so utterly desperate in relation to .unemploymeni; and companion troubles that Parliament should he called together at the earliest possible moments and the Government should be required without delay to formulate the policy it had promised from the hustings. Labour had no cause to be dismayed with the election result. Notwithstanding the combination made for its def eat, it Ead woh additional seats and had missed others by significantly narrow majorities, whiie its aggregate vote had been' substantially increased, and its position as the only possible alternative' Government was permanently established. *