REJECTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 160, 8 July 1922, Page 6

REJECTED.

The Conference of the Labour party yesterday rejected unanimously, after a brief discussion, a long remit from the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council declaring that the paTty "must break up, shatter the available ready machinery of State," and proposing that the present system of representative Government should be replaced by something apparently undistinguishable from Sovietism. The party may be congratulated on the unanimity of the vote and the brevity of the discussion. Still, we aTe a little curious. Canterbury proposed this revolutionary objective, and there were Canterbury representatives at the Conference, headed by the late president, Mr. F. R. Cooke, who has never impressed us as being a moderate. Did these Canterbury delegates defend their remit, and, if so, how were they convinced to the contrary? Curiosity on this point is stimulated by a etatement attributed to the secretary of the Alliance of Labour, that "Parliament should be composed of members —not representing geographical areas —'but industries," and that "he had discussed this matter with members of the Parliamentary Labour party, and they were in thorough agreement with him on this question." In the light of this we are all the more curious to know what certain members of the Conference said in opposition to the Christchureh Temit, ■but it is the Conference's pleasure that its sittings should be in camera. We have therefore to be content with the knowledge that the Conference has unanimously decided against "shattering" the machinery of State.