TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1927, Page 12

TRADE AND LABOUR NOTES.

Bv INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) !

I Mi )N MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Mi il.-.y. I'fhrunry US—TViinfprs, Bricklayers. 1 • •■•!:. y, March 1 — Tramway EraploVcs riiiiniuTs. V • ■iiH-siln.v. March -'—Ocner.nl Lnhour«rf>. Tlnirsilay, March ;—Boilermaker?, I'lumb •r»' fcduc-itioii.-i]. ANNUAL CONFERENCE. 'I'lic annual conference of organisations a "Minted to tlii . Now Zealand Labour I*.i "ty, thi- year opens in Napier, on _* .-ill IS (Ka-ter Mondavi, at 10 a.m. 1 ■■ Agenda J'aper jn>t to hand, is an iwit'nsivc one. consisting of ~u remits fii'in tiio affiliated organisations, many or tliptii being furtlier Mih-d'uided into sections. .Mu-t of tin , remits hail from southern organisations, ami amongst iiiuio from Auckland, tlio Eden Labour I'.-iViy branch bulks large, as desiring in in; amendment- to tin- state Hi" iliiiiL:>. Under tin , lioailinpr of "Land J'oliey," then , appear.- a remit that woiil'l indicate a reflex of the attack on tin "use-hold' , doctriiii- of la>t general • •lection. Jf is from the Auckland Women's Branch:-—"That whatever iilti-rntion* it may be deemed expedient in make in tile Labour Party's land policy, it -honld In , made perfectly clear i hat any individual in the Dominion may own the Ihi'im' or property he has pur-Hm-ed or inherited, always providing hu live- on or uses that property, and that Midi property may be passed on from generation to generation. If, however, the owner at any time wishes to sell the property, it must, in order to prevent land speculation, be sold to, or through the .State and at the State's valuation." Three Auckland organisations have remits on unemployment imniigration; tb , : Auckland Women's Branch asking th" Government to stop the inllux for at Ie;-t two years, and to establish the jiece-j-ary works to absorb the unemployed. The Bricklayers' Union ask:

"That the Xew Zealand Government be rc(|iif.-tfil to state in all its immigration pamphlet*; issued in England the number of unemployed registered at each oflice of the Labour Department." But that would "give the show away." ' The ( oachworkers' Union is to ask: "That a special organised effort be made to force the Government to alter its present immigration policy by means of a national demonstration on some fixed date, or by any other means that may be decided upon." Under the heading of "Summertime Bill," two Wellington and one New Plymouth organisation approve of the daylight-saving principle; the latter body desiring to have the principle inserted in the constitution of the New Zciiland Labour Party. Under the heading of "Prohibition," Palmerston North sounds a tocsin: "That the National Executive and the Parliamentary representatives be instructed to call upon all Mipporters of Labour at the next general (lections to record their votes against the trade, which consistently uses their organisations, both financially and otherwise, to defeat Labour candidates at the flections." '"Under "Industrial," the Auckland Hairdressers' Union will move: "That the late night for hairdressers' m loons be abolished throughout the Dominion." While an item from Auckland West Branch of the Labour Party draws the attention of the Conference to ''the present unsatisfactory working of the Apprentices Act, as disclosed by the recent remarks of Mr. Rowley, Undersecretary for Labour." Altogether, there i> plenty of material for some interesting dcliatesat the Easter Conference.

HOMOGENEITY OF LABOUR. Critics outside the Labour party have frequently levelled the charge against organised Labour that, if not actually irreligious;, its leaders have no sympathy for the churches or their tenets. Does it ever occur to- the average critic that Labour, as a party, embraces the most heterogeneous class of adherents that any party can include? Its members include representatives of all ranks, creed, and colour. In the unions, there are members of every colour—white, Wack, b»own, and yellow. The party nsks no questions as to creed, and in our Dominion unions there are Confucians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, Christians, and Rationalists. The one requisite is: Does he subscribe to the platform of Labour? Labour has amongst its leaders some of the most earnest Christians it is possible to include, as well as those of the opposite line of thought. On those points no questions are asked; Labour is homogeneous. The "N.Z. Methodist Times" of October 23, 1926, has an interesting article on several of the Labour leaders of Great Britain, which annihilates the argument that Labour is atheistic and irreligious. The article states:—

Labour and Religion. A feature of the general strike in Great Britain which has profoundly impressed the outside world, especially the United States, was the absence of violence or even of the uglier manifestations of ill-will. The strike was a conflict of great principles, and the advocates of these principles on either side had made up their minds to contend for what they believed to be their rights, in honourable ways, without permitting the struggle to degenerate into personal bitterness or party strife. A characteristic of the British Labour party has from the first been its strong Puritan strain. A goodly number of the men and women by whom it has been •Glided have been actively interested in i!'t; great social and religious movements <■; the day. The bulk of the members <>!' the Parliamentary Labour party have liiun lay preachers or Sunday school i'iiehers. A statement of the late Keir ii.inlie, who is regarded as the founder ot the l?riti«li Labour party, is quoted :i.> an illustration of this devotion of Labour leaders to high humanitarian ;"d religious ideals. Mr. Hardie once | .-. id: "If I were a thirty-years' younger mn.n, with the experience I have gained "hiring the past thirty-five years, I would, methinks, abandon house and Imine and wife and child, if need be, to! ;: > fortii among tlie people to proclaim I hfresh and anew the full mesingo of the' Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth.*' I

To thoughtful Christian minds, this feature of the Labour movement lias lio«n a source of hope and assurance, that whatever might be its ultimate mission, into whatever errors it might fall, through inexperience or contracted outlook, it would not destroy, but uphold the things that make for the moral and spiritual good of the people. It has been this spirit in the Labour party generally that has accounted for the amazing spectacle of a whole nation keeping its head and peacefully pursuing its course in the greatest economic war which the world has ever known. And so long as this spirit continues to dominate Labour in the Motherland, nothing but ultimate j:ood can come of agitations for the betterment of the people.