“IRRESPONSIBLE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 6

“IRRESPONSIBLE”

MR. DONALD’S STATEMENTS CRITICISED NO GENERAL ELECTION “According to the United Party candidate, the election of Mr. Bloodworth for Parnell would result in the danger of another General Election. When you get an irresponsible statement of that nature from a man what can you think of the rest of what he says?” So said Mr. M. J. Savage, DeputyLeader of the Labour Party, speaking at Mr. T. Bloodworth’s meeting at St. Heliers on Thursday evening. “It is a well-known and actual fact that the Labour Party has been responsible for avoiding a General Election,” Air. Savage continued. “LaboLir has supported the Government on every occasion possible, yet a United man makes such a statement from a public platform. The sugestion is so absurd that it can deceive no one.” If the Reform Party had had its way, continiied the speaker, the Government would not have survived two weeks of active life. Xet it was suggested that* the addition of one more Labour man, bringing the total in the House from 20 to 21 in a House of SO, would result in Labour completely reversing its present policy. The parties were fairly equally divided and whatever party held office would have to depend on assistance from some of its rivals in order to live. The Governor-General’s aim was to get as much work as possible from the existing Government. Should he grant the dissolution of the Government, he might find that after all the expense of a General Election, the parties were pretty well in the same position as before. “Is it likely that any party would be sent back with an independent majority?” asked Mr. Savage. “The Labour Party will carry on as it has in the past,” he continued. “We have no particular desire to decorate the Treasury benches. If the present Government will give us reasonable results it is likely to occupy the Treasury benches for the remainder of the normal life of Parliament. Results are what we want, and we are not likely to vote out the United Government unless it fails to deliver the political goods.”