The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1921. SECTIONAL LEGISLATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 December 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1921. SECTIONAL LEGISLATION.

In the course of the debate in the House on Tuesday relative to the meat marketing proposals submitted by the Government. Mr. H. E. Holland (Leader of the Labor Party) said: “If the Government was ready to come in and use all the machinery of the State to save the meat and wheat producers, they ought to be prepared to do the same for the workers, and ensure that every man should have full and profitable employment.” It is the recognised duty of the Leader of Labor to make the most out of every opportunity for advancing the interests of his followers, and Mr. Holland has not neglected this one. In point of fact, in the Government coming to the rescue of the producers, or cooperating with them to obtain better results than can be secured under the present more or less haphazard conditions, it is helping labor just as much as it is any other section, for manifestly t ie whole economic and financial structure of the country rests upon the producers. If things go badly with them, so they must react on every other part of the community, the workers particularly. The Government also, as Mr. Massey pointed out, has to conserve the position of the producers in order to ensure the payment of the taxes required to maintain the country’s solvency. All reasonable minds will grasp the fact that there are times when special legislation is required to meet exceptional happenings, and by their ability to discriminate as to when that iegislation is imperative, and the efficacy of its provisions, so is a Government weighed in the balance. As a producing country, New Zealand depends almost entirely on the farmers, and Mi Holland sensibly admitted that if disaster fell on the farmers, it must, also fall with equal force on industrial workers. This is the most significant acknowledgment that has been made for a long while past by a Dominion Labor leader, inasmuch as it recognises the principle that one limb of the body corporate cannot be injured without the whole suffering. . If this conviction became a leading tenet in Labor’s sphere of action it would revolutionise their policy, and in the right direction. Hitherto the chief reason why Labor has alienated a large body of support arose from the manner in which the leaders insisted that Labor was the dominant factor for consideration, and should govern all other factors. It is, therefore, gratifying to note the advent of a more sane view. The moment that Labor embraces a policy of constructive aid in national affairs, its cause will prosper, and its voice will carry weight. The attitude of Mr. Holland is a commendable and welcome change to that selfish and destructive tendency which has done so much harm to the cause of the workers in the past. That the pursuit of this new policy should be carried forward into all industrial avenues is most

desirable. It is just that simple recognition of the rights and troubles of others that will lead to industrial peace and industrial rehabilitation.