“MOST BARREN SESSION DOMINION HAS KNOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 236, 24 December 1927, Page 8

“MOST BARREN SESSION DOMINION HAS KNOW

MR. HOLLAND’S CRITICISM Press Association GREYMOUTH, Friday. The recent session of Parliament was referred to by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. K E. Holland, in a speech this eve* ing as one of the most barnt th# Dominion had known. Notwithstanding the promises made to tho farmers all they had received in the way of rural credit was another Act of Parliament which would not materially help the man on the land, and the agricultural bank was as fir off as ever so far as the Reform Pan:; was concerned. The amending Arbitration Bill, which fortunately the Labour Party succeeded in blocking, forecasted the attack on wages and working conditions which would inevitably be made if the Reform Party remained in office. He dealt with the problem of unemployment, which he said was increasing, and he said the Government was now dismissing men from certain public works on the eve of Christmas. “BOTH SIDES LET DOWN” Mr. Holland made brief reference to Mr. Coates’s Licensing Bill, and he said it was never intended it should reach the Statute Book. Both the liquor party and the prohibitionists had been let down. Next session the Labour Party would bring in a Bill to ensure majority voting in connection with licensing polls. They would provide for preferential voting on the three issues now' in the Act and would effectually dispose of the two-issue versus three-issue controversy. The

Labour Party would also bring in a Bill to abolish the Legislative Council. One of the worst features of Pa*' liament its night sittings. X*® business in the country would dream of conducting its affairs in the way the business of the House was conducted in all the night sittings, with 70 per cent, of the members out of their places and half of the reminder asleep on the benches. One o: the first acts of a Labour Governmen' would be to regulate the hours ia which Parliament would do its wort