MR. SEDDON AND LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 235, 4 October 1935, Page 6

MR. SEDDON AND LABOUR.

Mr. John Guiniven, at his meeting held at Northcote, is credited with having stated that Mr. Sedclon warned Labour at the time of the ■breaking away from the Liberal-Labour Federation that all that the Labour party would accomplish was to keep the Conservatives in power, because Labour was compact enough in the towns to keep anybody else out. Mr. Guiniven must have been with his tongue in his cheek if he was alluding to anything the late Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon had. to warn Labour about, although his son, Mr. T. E. Y. Seddon, who held the seat (Westland) .after his father's death in 1905, might have warned Labour a few years later, W Sir Joseph Ward's time, about breaking away from the Liberal-Labour Federation. The late great statesman built up the Liberal-Radicals and Labour into one big federation, and it was with this force that he swept the country at the polls just a few months prior to his [death. Ho blended the Liberals and Labour in the earlier period of the radical struggle against the Conservative forces, and I never knew the deceased statesman to hurl taunts against Labour such as Mr. Guiniven is credited with having said in his speech ait Northcote. His policy was described by his political opponents as "the Seven Devils of Socialism." That is significant to those who can run and read. OLD LIB.-LAB.