LABOUR AND SOCIALISM.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 7, 8 January 1908, Page 8

LABOUR AND SOCIALISM.

SPEECH BY MR. KEIR HARDIE. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHEISTCHUKCH, Tuesday Mr. Keir Ha.rdie, M.P., arrived in Cliristchurch from Wellington this morning. He is still suffering somewhat from the results of the motor accident !ie met with in the northern city, Several Christchurch residents, including Messrs. E. G. Ell and T. H. Davey,. M.P.'s, waited upon him during the day, a,n;l later on he was taken for a drive through Fendalton and other suburbs, accompanied by the Hon. T. W. Hislop, Mayor of Wellington, who also arrived from Wellington this morning. The various socialistic and labour organisations in Christchurch tendered a public reception to Mr. Keir Hardie to-night. There was a large attendance, and the guest was accorded a most cordial reception. In the course of his address, he referred to the legislation of New Zealand, and said that the freedom with which experiments were carried out was one of the things which must strike a visitor from Home. A land law which would be regarded at. Home as revolutionary had been passed in one session. Regarding the operations of wage 3 boards in New Zealand, he said he found that considerable diversity of opinion existed, but he was satisfied that in the principal and defined trades wages would have been as high if there bad been no wages boards, and if there had been a strong trade union. He considered it a lamentable fact that the trade union movement was not more vigorously and better organised in New Zealand. It was most unfair to' attribute the increased cost of living to the increased wages. The speaker concluded by an extended reference in support of the trade union movement. Mr. Hardie will remain in Christchurch to-morrow, and will leave for Dunedin by the first express on Thurs : day.