LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES. (By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.) UNION" MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Tuesday, }larch 20. —iEnsiueering Trades. Wednesday, March 27. —-Auckland Carpenters. Onehungn Carpenters. Thursday, March 2S. —Hotel and Restaurant Workers. BACK TO THE NORTH. "Industrial Tramp" during the last fortnight lias been true to his name, and after a trip to the southern end of the Dominion, in which 1000 miles by rail, 375 miles by boat, and 350 by car have been covered, has returned again to take up his ordinary work. His impressions'have been many and varied, and his reception in the various centres visited have been of the. most hospitable character. His business on this occasion did uot take the form of nn industrial errand, but involved attendance at the justices of the peace annual conference, at Dunedin. Party politics are rigidly excluded from all justices' gatherings. He did :/ot visit, on this occasion, any of the southern trades halls, and any opinions given here have been gathered and formed by contact with persons outside the Labour movement. In each centre visited there are signs that the Dominion has not only reached zero in the industrial and commercial senee, but that the barometer is rising frradually. In Wellington, where I had to spend a day between the boat and train each way,' building of new premises is going on,"many'in the main streets being of a costly and substantial character. One palatial building on Lambton Quay, eight storeys in height, for the Prudential Assurance Company, ie very striking in design and colour, the outside being in pink and cream. It is spoken of in Wellington as "the building that cost nothing to build." The head office in England, so the story goes, sent out £1,000,000 to start the building worthily, and when the sum reached Wellington it had been increased by 25 per cent by exchange rates. The building and site has cost a quarter of a million pounds in round figures, leaving the original million intact! The building ie not yet out of the contractor's hands, and the internal fittings are still in progress, but it is a prominent illustration of the working of the exchange rates. Christchureh bears signs of improvement in the building line,, and. many artisans that were oil relief work have gone back to their trades again. Dunedin is in inueh. the same condition. .The country about Wellington is recovering its verdure after the recent spell of hot, dry weather, but Canterbury and' South Canterbury are very much scorched, and good rains are still awaited. Otago'arld Southland are recovering slowly in their pasturage, and this is more evident, the nearer one gets to • the Lake-country where the annual rainfall is very high.

MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. A prevailing topic now is the coming municipal elections. Spending four days in Dunedin I heard more of that city's prospects than in the other two cities, as I only passed through them en route. One of my contacts, who certainly was not on the side of Labour, expressed the opinion that municipal matters were very much ■. mixed in Dunedin. Speaking in' regretful tones he said that there were too many coniing out for the mayoralty. This would split the votes considerably, and there was a want of cohesion and organisation. I said: "What about the Labour party, what are they doing?" He said: "Oh, they are fairly solid, and they are organising." I said: "What about the present Mayor, the Rev. E. T. Cox?" He replied: "That is the trouble; with all this want of solidarity on our side, I am afraid he is going to slip in, for he ■will carry the Labour vote this time. Last time he got in as an Independent, and polled 10,700/ votes." I leave my readers to form their own conclusions, ■whatever their politics are.

It is also anticipated that Labour will considerably increase its number on the City Council, if it does not actually get a majority of the twelve eeats. At present there are three, Messrs. J. W. Munro, M.P., F. Jones, M.P., and M. Silvestone, while several other councillors have been sympathetic to Labour. I may mention that the present Mayor, Mr. Cox, has been released by his church from ministerial work for twelve months, so that he will be able to devote his whole attention to outside work, which will include being the accredited Labour candidate for. the dutha seat at the general election. In CJiristchurch and Wellington, municipal matters have not sufficiently developed as yet, but in both centres the Labour party is very active and prospects are good. In all these places they are very active in placing supporters on the roll, which closes on April .3. In Auckland, while writing these notes, I was called to the door by a canvasser on behalf oi: the Citizens' League, who wanted to know whether we, in the house, were all enrolled. I noticed also that he was carefully recording whether we were Labour or otherwise. So it is apparent that someone is organising in Auckland. CLOSING THE BREACH.

By a majority vote of its members the Lang party in South Australia has decided to rejoin the Australian Labour party. This will bring about the complete consolidation of the Labour forces in that State. As the result of the Labour unity various other Labour factions in South Australia decided to rejoin the A.L.P., leaving the Lang party standing out. The latter party, realising the hopelessness of its position, then decided to take a ballot on the question of rejoining tho A.L.P. About 75 per cent of members participated in the ballot, the voting being in favour of rejoining.'

POLITICS BY WIRELESS. The Australian Broadcasting Commission lias decided to permit broadcasting facilities in connection'.'with the Federal elections campaign to "each of the four parties" in the Federal House. Commenting on this decision, the "Worker," which supports the Australian Labour party, saye: "Thus, in addition to the alleged United Australia party and the professed United Country party and the genuine Australian Labour party (otherwise known as the Federal Labour party), with Seullin as leader, the Lang party with Beasley, the mouthpiece of Lang, a.s chief talker, will be heard over the air. Each address is not to exceed 90 minutes in duration. In addition, a representative of each party will be allowed to make a speech from a national station in each State. This will be a fairer deal than Federal Labour has had previously in connection with propaganda by radio, but the multipliejt/ of parties and alleged parties may 'confusion worse confounded' among the iisteners-in."