THE LABOR PARTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1920, Page 5

THE LABOR PARTY.

ADDRESS BY MR. H. E. HOLLAND, M.P. A crowded audience greeted Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., chairman of the Parliar mentary Labor Party, at Everybody's Theatre on Sunday night. The Mayor (Mr. Jas. Clarke) presided. The subject chosen by Mr. Holland for his address was "Labor's Reply to the Massey Government," and he enumerated eight or nine challenges which hi? proposes to put to the Massey Government during the sessiqn. Pride of place in the list was given to the Samoan problems in regard to indentured labor, and Mr. Holland made out a very strong and logical case against the continuance of the scheme of indenturing Chinesa and other colored laborers fo/ work in the plantations. Speaking of proportional representation, Mr. Holland said that in the last election the Labor Party had suffered most severely by reason of the handicap imposed by the present system. He also explained that the Labor Party sought to "intellectually convert" the majority on the floor of the House, and so long as the majority was against them they did not want to administer the country. In educational matters, said the- speaker, the Government was very niggardly, in striking contrast to its expenditure on many other things. One of the reforms advocated by the speaker was the reorganisation of the Lands Department, which, he said, should be the sole agency for the transfer and disposal of land in Now Zealand, and that the work should be done for the cost of conducting the department, flot at the huge commissions at present charged by land agents. A State Bank was strongly advocated by Mr. Holland, who predicted that wit'aI in the next few years the country would be faced with a banking crisis, compared with which the crisis of 1892-93 would sink into insignificance. In speaking on the subject of militarism, the that, within the next twelve months, a wav% of jingoism would spread through the Press of the Dominion. At the conclusion of Mr. Holland's address, the following resolution, moved by Mr. P. B. Fitzherbert, v»as put to the meeting and carried on a show of hands: —"That this meeting of New Plymouth citizens approves of the attitude of tha Labor Party in opposition to the employment of indentured Chinese coolie labor in Western Samoa, and emphatically protests against the system imposed by Germany being continued under the British flag by the New Zealand Government." ■ J' i Votes of thanks to the Mayor for presiding, and to the speaker, were carried fa? acclamation * ,