CLASS OR COUNTRY?

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 160, 29 February 1932, Page 4

CLASS OR COUNTRY?

Events on the first worlung day of the emergency session of Parliament now in progress can hardly be described as encouraging. We should be the last to agree with any suggestion that the Opposition should be deprived of any of its rights or privileges, or that the Labour Party should neglect any part of its duty to it£ electors. Those rights and privileges should be exercised, however, and that duty performed, with a due regard for the interests of the Dominion as a whole and for the facts of the situation, and not merely with ayiew to serving class or party interests. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have occurred to Mr. Holland and those who follow him, judging by their attitude on Friday when the motion for the introduction of the Inriustrial Conciiiation and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill was . before the House. Without waiting to see what the measure contained — indeed, Mr. P. Fraser, who opened the attack, admitted almost in so many words that he had nothing more substantial than rumour to go upon — members of the Opposition developed a strong barrage of talk which had no other discoverable purpose than that of delaying proceedings, while the leader of the Party stated ffankly that fevery form of opposition that iStanding Orders and the forms of the House permit will be utilised to defeat this legislation." It is difficult to see what useful purpose can possibly be served by such tactics. If every measure proposed by the Government is to be opposed before its contents are known, the only conclusion to be drawn is that it is being opposed oecause it is a Government measure rather than because of disagreement with its contents. In times such as the present, when economies of all kinds on the part of Government and Parliament are the country's most pressing need, extravagance, of any sort— even of words — is surely not the way to win public sympathy. It is certainly not the way to serve the country. Unfortunately, the members of the Labour Party, with few exceptions,- of whom Mr. Holland quite definitely is not one, are always more effective in destructive attack than in constructive criticism. Unkind critics might suggest that this is because the former is the easier. The history of the Labour Party in Great Britain suggests, however, that the real reason is because the Party in New Zealand has no experience of the responsibilities of office. At Ilome, since they first occupied the Treasury benches in 1924, the responsible leaders of the Labour Party have exhibited a much more lively sense of national responsibility than they ever did before then, and this no doubt has some bearing upon the Party's rapid progress in the country. The lack of this experience in New Zealand, though it is probably a reason for Labour's irfesponsible attitude, is certainly no excuse for it, especially in a time of national crisis. Further, it is not even good tactics from the narrow point of view of party advantage. Many things have been and are being done — and still more left undone— by the present Government with which large numbers of its supporters do not agree. But vituperation and obstruction employed for their own' sakes will appeal to these still less, and many sympathisers with Mr. Holland's party will be- similarly aft'ected. This is no time for useless talk, no matter how picturesque. The present is an emergency session called to deal with urgent econpmic problems, and it is the duty of the party in Opposition,' no less than of that in power, to assist in every way possible to find a solution of those problems. This implies, not .a iimitation, but the intelligent employment of its inalienable right to criticise the Government's proposed legislation with a view to its improvement where possible. If members of the House, both Government and Opposition, could bring themselves tc realise that at preseiit country is everything and party nothing, their work woulcl be very greatly improved iri quality and much valuable time would be saved. .