MINERS & LAW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1942, Page 3

MINERS & LAW

MR HOLLAND ON WAIKATO SETTLEMENT INDUSTRIAL APPEASEMENT. AND CAPITULATION TO FORCES OF LAWLESSNESS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, October 12. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, who arrived here this morning, made the following statement:— “Mr Webb was unquestionably telling the truth when he said that the Northern Miners' Union executive was completely happy over the confiscation of the Waikato coal mines. This is another black page in the Government’s record of industrial appeasement and capitulation to the forces of lawlessness by playing the enemy’s game, as Mr Semple put it. "By holding up production by disorganising our transport system, so that thousands of soldiers were locked m their camps because there was insufficient coal to take them to their homes and families, 1300 coal miners have won an important battle toward thenmain objective, State control and socialisation. Thirteen hundred striking coal miners have succeeded in robbing the 13,000 hard-working dairy farmers who co-operatively own two of the Waikato mines of the right to manage their own affairs. Eleven hundred coal miners wantonly broke tae law, and have not even been summonsed and prosecuted. Thirteen thousand dairy farmers broke no law, and committed no wrong. The finding of the Court of Inquiry was entirely in their favour, yet they vinrtually lose control of their own mines, and any increased earnings are to be confiscated. The use of war funds to pay fees, salaries, and allowances to the members of this board is a grave misuse of the war funds, and will be leceived with much misgiving by the public. “A paragraph in the statement is devoted to the question of excess profits being paid to the War Expenses Account, but there is a significant silence on the important question of where any deficiency or loss is o come from. One naturally wonders why the Minister is silent on this point. The original regulations provided that any losses should be a Charge on the War Expenses Account, and it there were insufficient funds to pay the average dividend to the shareholders then the dividend would be made up’out of the War Expenses Account. Again this would be a grave misuse o the war funds and a serious shock to the public.”

“THAT SORT OF NONSENSE”

PRIME MINISTER'S REPLY.

(Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “Mr Holland is fully at liberty to relieve his friendly feelings toward the Government even if he does so m characteristic reckless fashion, or to indulge in an orgy of misrepresentatioi if that sort of dissipation appeals to him, but I am sorry for his own sake that he has stooped to what appears to be conscious if feeble inaccuracy in describing the control of the Waikato mines for the period of the war as ‘confiscation,’ ”■ said the Prime Minister Mr Fraser, when referring in an interview last night to the statement by the Leader of the Opposition. Nobody will believe that sort of nonsense,” added the Prime Minister.

GENERAL ELECTION VIEWS OF OPPOSITION LEADER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, October 12. Interviewed this morning, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, said his Christchurch interview on the election had been misunderstood. He naa not said it should be held in three months, but that it would require that period to complete preparations. He .definitely held that the election should take place when war conditions permitted. These were unfavourable at present, but a time when the New Zealand troops were resting, as recently in Libya, would be suitable.