LABOUR PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 91, 19 April 1933, Page 3

LABOUR PARTY.

[■ OFFICERS ELECTED. i' . MR. F. LANGSTONE PRESIDENT PASSAGE OP REMITS. The election of officers was the principal business transacted by the Labour party at its resumed annual conference yesterday afternoon. The new president is' Mr. F. Langs tone, M.P. for Waimarino, and the new vice-president, Mr. C. L. Carr, M.P. for Tinvaru. The retiring president was Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P. for Manukau. Resolutions favouring the payment of sustenance to unemployed women and of pensions to widows unable to earn their living, irrespective of whether they were with or without means of livelihood, were carried. A proposal that the family allowances for relief workers should be extended to cover all children was also supported. Conference passed a remit favouring the establishment of an appeal board for mental hospitals. The amending of the electoral law to place Maori elections on the same basis as European by providing electoral rolls and voting by secret ballot was supported. : Conference unanimously decided to reaffirm the party's objection to the raising of the school age from live to six_ years, on the grounds that this action on the part of the Coalition Government was inimical to the best interests of children, parents and teachers alike, and increased the difliculties of the school committees. Fixed Labour Day. Routine business dealing with internal organisation occupied the conference thi3 morning. One remit (Wellington Trades and Labour Council) was passed, expressing .the opinion of conference that Labour Day should be celebrated throughout New Zealand on the fourth Monday in February, with the c >ject of providing not only a permanent date, but of ensuring settled weather for the holiday. A remit proposing the institution of the ward system for municipal elections was lost after a close vote.