LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 122, 25 May 1935, Page 17

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TKAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK Monday, May 27. —Shipwrights' Special. Xucaday, May as.—Utitchew,

CABINET-MAKING

Since tin , return o£ a Labour majority t(i the Auckland City Council, the successful fifteen have been exercising their tnlcnts in tli« somewhat difficult and jirtir-tic trade of "cabinet-making, ,, tbe results being displayed at the first meeting of the new council last week. In the trade of cabinet-making there an , many things to consider, such, for iiic-tunce, us the materials employed in the article, and the general ap]>earance iiiid utility when the finished article is placed on the market. As an experienced wood-worker, when 'setting about tlie making , of any cabinet or article of furniture, if destined to be of the useful kind, my endeavour has always been In select my timbers with an eye to smooth working and lasting properties. All short-grained or cross-grained woods were carefully eschewed. Only the best heart tinibei would be used and eappy wood would be put. aside. This would ensure smooth working for the future. Even then the finiahed product would not necessarily meet with the approval of every critic that came to view the work. That would be too much to expect. Some critics might be hypercritical and meticulous; on the lookout for faults and over-looking the general purpose for which the article is destined. It it> not to bo wondered at that when the Labour, party in the City Council at its firet meeting , submitted its proposal for. the new "cabinet" for the next three years, it would meet with some criticism from the other side, which had been accomplished "cabinetmakers" on the council for many long years back, and had always produced an article finiahed to their own satisfaction. The "key" position, of course, was the finance committee, which of late years, must consist of the Mayor, ex officio and' the chairman of all the other committees. It ie in the finance committee that all financial proposals are first considered and worked; it is the committee that has to deal with or formulate the. estimates for revenue and expenditure for the forthcoming year. To reappoint as chairman of the other seven committees, members of the minority party would be a concession not in the interests of the citizens who had returned a decisive majority of the council with a definite mandate for a. change of policy. Furthermore, Labour members in previous councils who were in a pitiful minority, sometimes coneisting of one, two or, at the most four members, have never been treated so chivalrously by the ruling party. I have known, not more than sis years ago, of new members elected for the first time to the council, being at once appointed as chairmen of committees over the heads of the two Labour councillors who had already served several terms on the committees concerned. Labour makes no complaint about this procedurej it was a matter of policy for the other side. What was good for the other side muet also be good for Labour on attaining control. The sentimental question of chivalry docs not enter into the matter; it is a question of jiolicy, and the policy was set by the other side. Politics in the Council. Labour has been accused of introducing party politics into the municipal contests, as if party politics in this sphere was a new element. It has existed, more or leee prominently, for more than a generation, to my knowledge. When tho writer was returned to the Auckland City Council as a solitary Labour councillor. in 1901, ho at once noted that ho was a party of one, and, us Mr. Bloodworth remarked very aptly last council night, referring to his own position, ho "could hold a caucus meeting of his party in his own chair." Often, in that council of 30 years ago, his resolutions had to lapse for want of a seconder. Last year, for the Milk Council, the ruling party held a caucus meeting, and, ignoring Labour's claim for a quota representation, elected three of its own party to represent the consumers on tho Milk Council. In the face of these and other facts, the accusation is made that Labour lias introduced party politics into municipal areas. Party politics lias existed, and will exist for all time. DUNEDIN LABOUR COUNCIL. I have been much interested in readIng the Press account of tho Dunedin Labour Mayor, the Rev. E. T. Cox, making hfe installation speech. He lias put the position of his party so convincingly, and represents the Auckland position so truly, that part of his statoment is well worth reproducing in this column. "Wo differ from our predecessors in that wo hold that the well-being of the citizens has a prior claim over all other in teres ts," said Mr. Cox. "To raise a generation of citizens perfectly developed in physique because they have access to adequate food supplies and proper shelter requirements, who shall be warmly clad and possessed with ample recreation areas for exercise and sport, is the ideal for which wo stand. That ideal we hold to be the concern of the city, and not merely of the individual family. The other factors in human development, mental and moral, need not concern us at the moment, provision for these having already been made in the organisation of school j, colleges, libraries and churches. "Wo hope, among other thinga, to do something to alleviate the distress of that large section of the community that is' designated the unemployed; to make tho working conditions and the remuneration of the council's employees a : standard and an example to the rest of the community; to see that either by private enterprise or community effort there is adequate and proper housing for all tho people; to utilise - . , relief labour on constructive, or reproductive work."