Harry Holland

At the time of Holland's arrival, Waihi was descending into chaos. A bitter miners' strike, the most significant industrial action that New Zealand had yet seen, was underway, and the conservative government of William Massey was responding with strong measures. The strike eventually led to the death of a miner in a shoot-out with police. Holland was encouraged by the strike, believing that it was the beginning of "class war" against capitalism.[6] This view was not shared, however, by the New Zealand Socialist Party, which, when the strike broke out, had actually asked Holland not to come to Waihi. The New Zealand socialists, for the most part, saw socialism as a means to an end, and distrusted Holland's view that socialism was a goal in and of itself. Many New Zealand socialists resented Holland's arrogance, seeing him as a self-opinionated outsider meddling in a precarious situation that he did not fully understand.[7] Afterwards, Holland co-authored the prolific The Tragic Story of the Waihi Strike pamphlet with a fellow Australian agitator, Robert Samuel Ross.[8]

Gradually, however, Holland's militancy decreased. In 1913, following the failure of the strike, he attended the second unity conference as a delegate.[9] His co-authorship with Ross of the pamphlet on the strike gained him a certain amount of prestige, as did his editorship of the Federation of Labour's newspaper, the Maoriland Worker 1913–18.[3] In 1913, a candidate of the Social Democratic Party (or SDP, which the Socialist Party had merged into) was elected to Parliament with backing from the mainstream Liberal Party, and Holland was happy — at one stage, he would have condemned co-operation with any non-socialist organisation. Holland himself, however, still ran into difficulties with the law. In the 1913 waterfront dispute, he was charged with sedition, and was sentenced to one year in jail for using seditious language coming close to advocating for violence against the government. His friends Reverend Richard Hobday and Walter Nash visited Holland in prison and witnessed signs of mistreatment. Years later Nash described his visit: "They made me stay outside the door, they would not let me inside his cell. They would not let him have a razor so he was all bristly with ugly growth out of his face … I had a talk with him, with somebody standing by me to listen to what I said. He said, 'I didn't say what they say I said, but if I said it I would justify it.'"[10] This time, however, he was widely seen by the public as a martyr, and gained considerable support.[1] Holland was initially selected as the SDP candidate to stand for Mayor of Wellington at the 1914 election, but was unable to contest the mayoralty as he was engaged in the sedition case, so John Glover stood in his place.[11]

At the 1914 election Holland stood for the SDP in the Wellington North electorate, finishing third.[12] In 1915 he stood as an SDP candidate for the Wellington City Council. He was unsuccessful but polled much higher than any of the other candidates on the labour ticket.[13]

Shortly before the 1919 election, the first contested by the Labour party as a united bloc, Holland contested for the leadership of the Labour party. Previous Labour leader Alfred Hindmarsh had died in the influenza epidemic in late 1918 leaving the position open. His only opponent was previous party president James McCombs, who had more parliamentary experience than Holland. The caucus voted and the result was a draw, though after a draw by lot, Holland won the parliamentary leadership of the party, becoming Labour's next leader.[22] Most historians see his victory as being due to his public profile rather than to his policies, which many in the Labour Party considered too extreme.

Holland came to personally personify the Labour Party in a way that his predecessors did not due to his superb oratory on public platforms where he could draw large crowds. He built up a core following among his caucus consisting of Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser, Bob Semple and later Walter Nash. All were to become not only loyal lieutenants to Holland during his tenure, but the most influential members of the First Labour Government following Holland's death.[23]

In 1922 there were movements towards a proposed alliance between the Labour and Liberal parties, similar to the Lib-Lab Pact in the UK.[24] This was in order to avoid vote splitting, particularly in marginal semi-urban electorates. Holland and the party executive began negotiations with Liberal leader Thomas Wilford about conducting a joint campaign and if successful, forming a coalition government which would set up a proportionally represented electoral system. However, the talks collapsed after Wilford demanded on holding on to office for a full term before holding an election under the new system, Holland thinking he would use this time to attempt to discredit Labour.[25]

Holland in 1922

In 1925 Labour suffered a setback, losing 5 seats despite gaining 3.5% more of the vote. However, Holland became Leader of the Opposition on 16 June 1926, as a result of the Eden by-election. Labour had now surpassed the Liberal Party as the second largest party in Parliament.[26] Following the 1928 election the results showed a hung parliament. Labour held the balance of power and chose to give reluctant support to the United Party (a renamed Liberal Party) rather than continue to let Reform govern.[27] As a result of this Holland lost the status of Leader of the Opposition to ousted Prime Minister Gordon Coates. Holland attributed the loss to the failure of all trade unionists to support Labour, although had Labour won in 1928 it may well have been denied its long tenure of office which followed after 1935.[4] Some unions were critical of the decision to give support to United. Holland rationalized it as "a preference of bad to worse."[28]

By the 1930s Holland had a decreasing influence on policy details, with most being instead written by the party general secretary, Nash, who would only consult with Holland when writing manifestos. The main reason for this was Holland's personal financial situation which led to much of his attention being spent on writing articles and pamphlets to supplement his parliamentary salary. By 1929 he was in debt and had no life or fire insurance. Eventually he received financial aid from the party head office who provided 1/3 of a salary for an assistant to help Holland with his correspondence (he received 679 letters from January to March 1930 alone) with Holland paying the rest. He also published a book, Red Roses on the Highway, in 1924.[29] He also concentrated his writings and speeches more on foreign affairs. Holland was particularly critical of the government's treatment of the people of Western Samoa. His colleagues attempted to dissuade him from putting an item on Samoa in an election manifesto, thinking it would not be helpful politically by saying that Samoa was not British. Holland protested, "But it's right!" John A. Lee thought that Holland had a "Samoan complex" and told him so.[30]

Labour's support for United lasted until 1931 until the Great Depression took hold. Holland disagreed with United on financial policy to combat the depression and its effects. Holland decided to withdraw support from the government and moved for a vote of no confidence, intending to trigger an election where he thought many disenchanted voters would switch to Labour. Much to his surprise, the Reform party voted with United and the two entered into a coalition denying Holland his chance to seize the initiative. An election was held at the years end and Labour improved well, but still fell short of winning Government.[31]

As the Depression worsened, Holland began to doubt some of his convictions. At first, Holland had believed that the Depression marked the beginning of the end for capitalism, but as the economic problems continued, and many workers were cast into poverty, Holland began to question whether his theories were capable of solving the crisis. He became instead increasingly interested in credit theory as a possible solution.[32] Suffering from depression, exhaustion, and ill health, Holland began to withdraw from the activities of leadership. Talk of a possible challenge to his leadership appeared, but there was not yet any willingness for an open confrontation.[33]