LABOUR NOTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 259, 31 October 1936, Page 12

LABOUR NOTES.

UNION ACTIVITIES.

(By INDUSTRIAL TRAMP.)

UNION MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Moiulav, November 2—Tailors (committee). Engineers' Executive. Shipwrights. Briekworkers. . m Tuesday, November 3—Seamen s monthly stopwork. Engineers' annual. Drivers. "Wednesday, November 4—Auckland Carpenters. Local Bodies' Labourers. Tramways (a.m. and p.m. shifts). LABOUR DAY CELEBRATION. Monday last was a most favourable day in Auckland so far as tlic weather was concerned. Rain liad fallen tlie previous evening and tlie Domain wore its best aspect for tlie Labour Day sports carnival. The wind had shifted to the south-west and the temperature for competitors and onlookers was conducive to competition and comfort. Some very fine finishes "were recorded in several of the events. The competitors included several from the southern ■centres and the public, I think, attended in greater numbers than last year, notwithstanding the many counter attractions, and there was an agreeable improvement in the way in which the running tracks were kept clear from excited onlookers, an achievement which was greatly due to the installation of loud-speakers operated from a central position. With the glorious uncertainties of our spring weather it is felt that Labour Day in October is too early in the season to be comfortable for the promoters, especially in view of the charge for admission to the ground being resumed next year. The weather on the day makes all the difference between paying expenses and making a loss. Hence the movement, as indicated, last week, in favour of transferring the official day to November 27, which is one month later, is clear of other holidays, and synchronises with the advent of the first Labour Government for the Dominion. It was during the long Seddon regime, with Mr. Seddon as Minister of Labour, that Labour Day was officially declared by a special Act composed of six lines passed on October 19, 1899. Since then the day has been advanced a fortnight, from the second Wednesday to the fourth Wednesday in October, and still further amended to the fourth Monday in that month, to allow of a longer holiday at the week-end. A later day still is now deemed advisable. The trustees feel gratified at the suocess of this year's function and appreciate the assistance which was gratuitously given by all officials and helpers.

PARLIAMENT ADJOURNS. By the time these lines are in print, Parliament' will have closed down for its "long vacation," which it has richly earned. In my long recollections of Parliamentary activities of over half a century, I can recall no other Parliament that has put through so many important and far-reaching legislative enactments as the 1936 Parliament, and while the programme has not hy any means been exhausted everybody agrees with the Prime Minister in his assertion that time should now he taken for the proper administration of the many proposals that have already taken legislative' form. This means that while the rank and file of Parliament will have their holiday there will still he hard work necessitating close attention to business on the part of the Ministers and their heads of departments. With all this work already accomplished, there are here and there, even . amongst so-called Labour supporters, a few critics who express discontent and disappointment because the Government has not done this or that thing—in which they are more or less directly concerned. Honest critics should always look at a question from the viewpoint of "the greatest good to the greatest number." Looking back i over the list of bills passed one cannot j fail to notice that each bill passed is , the result of careful consideration. From the Reserve Bank Bill right down to the Industrial Efficiency Bill each step is taken with the aim of the abolition of unemployment and with the object of rejuvenating the economy of the Dominion. BRITISH DELEGATION. This week the reception of the dele- ' gates from Britain and the sister Dominions across the seas concluded with a civic At Home tendered by the Auckland Mayor and City Council at tho Town Hall, and with individual exceptions the delegates are now speeding back to. "their respective countries, no doubt suitably impressed with the potentialities as well as the hospitality of this far-flun.l section of the British Crown. During a short month since their arrival in Auckland from overseas they have held, a most important conference in which the commercial and economical affairs of the whole Empire have been considered and remits passed, in addition to which they have had official receptions in all the most important centres. They have seen our Thermal Districts as well as our cold lakes and Mount Cook in the south and have not neglected the golden opportunities, both in season and out of season, to deliver to us, as habitants of a country with no commercial traditions, homilies born of the age-old commercial experiences of the United Kingdom. Whether they may have at times overstepped the mark as guests never occurred to them until it was somewhat frankly brought under their n.otice by our own Minister of Railways and the Defence Minister of Canada. I attended that function on last Wednesday evening from a sense of duty, as I realised that the City Council and the Mayor were the hosts of the evening, but when the chief speaker of the delegation, Mr. Alton, from the Derby Chamber of Commerce, delivered his long homily on the duties of buyers and sellers as applied to the legislation and internal management of the dwellers in this Dominion, I had to exercise such a degree of repression and restraint on myself as threatened to damage the fit and construction of my best Sunday suit. I could not make an audible protest without violating all the accepted canons of good breeding expected of the hosts at a reception. I practised repression as a Christian, and came away filled with the consolation that "he that ruleth his spirit is mightier than him that taketh a city. I said nothing then, but when I note that Viscount Elibank, president of the conference, is a director of at least seven of the principal trading companies of the world, two of which are operating largely in Xew Zealand, and other delegates also figure similarly in commercial operations and ventures, I may be pardoned for regarding the advice given as being tendered not from entirely disinterested motives.