WANT OF CONFIDENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 July 1938, Page 8

WANT OF CONFIDENCE

MOTION BY OPPOSITION LEADER BRISK ATTACK ON POLICY OF GOVERNMENT. DELETION MADE BY SPEAKER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A motion of no-confidence in the Government was moved in the House of Representatives today by the Leader of the Opposition (the Hon. A. Hamilton). The motion was to the effect that the Government had lost the confidence of the House on the grounds that its main objective was the socialisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange; that the realisation of the Government’s objective must mean the elimination of private ownership, private property, with the freehold, and private saving; that the State had usurped the traditional rights and liberties of the British people; that the whole trend of the Government’s legislation was directed towards State domination and dictatorship; that the Dominion was no longer governed -by the elected representatives of the people, but by the Easter Labour Conference and the professional unionists of the Trades Hall; that the attitude of the Government with regard to foreign affairs was a direct threat to the solidarity of the . Empire; that the Government had failed to honour its election pledges, and finally that the cumulative effect of the legislation and administration of the Government had been to foster a spirit of service dependence on the State. The Speaker (the Hon. W. Barnard) ruled out of order the portion of the proposed amendment relating to the domination of the Government by the Easter Labour Conference, etc., on the ground that it was improper to suggest that the Government of the country was not being conducted frbm within Parliament and that the Government was submitting to outside or-' ganisations. The Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes asked it the opposition were not to be allowed to suggest that the Government’ listened to organisations outside the House. The Speaker replied that there was a wide difference between what Mr Forbes suggested and the terms of the clause in the suggested amendment. MR FRASER’S REJOINDER. The Minister of Education (the Hon P. Fraser) congratulated the Leader of the Opposition on the comparative moderation of his statement in moving the amendment, compared with some of the statements he had made from the public platform recently, in which he ascribed to the Labour Government all the crimes on the calendar. He could not, however, congratulate Mr Hamilton on his amendment, in which he had embodied a preposterous statement that his Excellency’s advisers had forfeited the confidence of the House. Mr Hamilton, however, had been very cautious in not stating that the Government had lost the confidence of the country, and it was quite prepared to leave to the country its fate at the next election. The debate was continued by Mr W. P. Endean and Mr W. J. Lyon.