ABILITY SCOUTED

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 950, 17 April 1930, Page 9

ABILITY SCOUTED

MR. BLOODWORTH DOUBTS UNITED CHOICE MR. VEITCH’S CONFIDENCE Embarking on a criticism of the political qualifications of the United Party candidate in the Parnell election, Mr. Alan Donald, Labour's representative, Mr. T. Bloodworth, advanced to 80 electors in the Parnell Library Hall last evening his own experience and political knowledge. While he claimed to have accomplished more groundwork in public questions than Mr. Donald or the Reform candidate. Mr. W. P. Endean, Mr. .Bloodworth refrained from reviewing the qualifications of the Reform candidate, who was opening his campaign only that evening. Mr. Bloodworth was at a loss to understand the justification for the confidence in Mr. Donald expressed by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. W. A. Veitch, the previous evening. Enlarging his criticism, the speaker said: “Mr. Veitch predicted a great future Cor Mr. Donald in the ranks of the United Party, and the candidate himself issued a note of hope and implicit confidence in the future. I looked up the newspapers of the date of the General Election and found that similar words were spoken by Mr. 11. R. Jenkins, who won Parnell for the United Party, and has now deserted the party, declaring himself to have been Reform at heart all the time. “I submit that it was possible to be more confident of Mr. Jenkins than it is to be confident of Mr. Donald, who returned to Npw Zealand only a year ago. Mr. Jenkins, on the other hand, was extremely well-known in Auckland. * When Mr. Donald was chcsen as the United Party candidate, I sought details of his career in the paper supporting the party. I found only a brief history and learned that, since Mr. Donald returned to New Zealand he had become a member of tbe Auckland Golf Club and had been interested in the Rugby Union. There was not much to justify Mr. Veitch's unbounded confidence in the candidate’s political future.’* MR. BLOODWORTH S SERVICE The chairman at the meeting, Mr. J. W. Yarnall, instanced Mr. Bloodworth’s services to the public, and the candidate proceeded to point out how it would be safer to rely on Labour to assist the United Party to carry out its pledges, especially in regard to unem- \ loyment, than to add an inexperienced member to tbe parts*. The electors had been asked to return Mr. Donald to give the United Party a chance to carry out its policy, but, what was the policy? Labour did not quarrel with the ideals propounded by the United Party before the General Election, but it disagreed with tbe methods. Mr. Veitch and Mr. Donald both feared that a Labour return would plunge New Zealand into the cost of an election, but Labour was not to blame for the risk. To a. man, the Labour Party was determined to give the Government opportunities to give effect to its pledges as far as unemployment and such questions were concerned. Mr. Donald, commenting on the report of a special committee, had said unemployment in New Zealand was negligible—a ridiculous statement. Mr. Bloodworth believed industrial development to be as important as land settlement in relieving unemployment, especially when New Zealand’s market in Great Britain might be affected by the iand settlement contemplated there. A vote of thanks and confidence was passed.