LABOUR PARTY FUNDS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22073, 22 April 1937, Page 10

LABOUR PARTY FUNDS

POSSIBLE TOTAL SET AT £IOO,OOO MEMBERS PLEDGED TO FIND BIG SUM If the New "Zealand Labour Party I succeeds in its national campaign forj funds, it will, have a sum • of at least £IOO,OOO with which to fight the next General Election, towards the end of 1938. Delegates of affiliated organisations attendins the party conference at Wellington at Easter agreed to a recommendation that each branch should raise the sum of £1 a member a year for a fighting fund. The party's own reports indicate that there are at least 100,000 affiliated members. The decision made at the conference was that each branch, as a unit, should endeavour to raise an amount corresponding to £1 a member, either by some voluntary levy, apparently, or by organising functions to raise money. An official was reported as statine at the conference that "if the money is forthcoming—as it should easily be on that system—the national executive can almost give a written guarantee that there will be more Labour members of Parliament in the House after next election than before." Party Membership * The party's official journal Has stated authoritatively that the total membership of affiliated organisations—not necessarily including trades unions, incidentally—has reached a total of 100,000 and some trades union secretaries in Christchurch state that there is general expectation that there will be a good response to the recomapproved at the conference. One prominent secretary pointed out that in the last election 389,000 electors voted for Labour, and contended that it was safe to assume that at least half of them would contribute to the fund. In fact, it is generally considered that the number of members of the party must now reach considerably more than 100,000. According to the same official regorts the Labour Party funds should enefit to the extent of no less than £9OOO from Maori members, if they all contribute on the agreed basis, for intense organisation by labour among the natives has led to 9000 of them forming affiliated branches. Recently three new organisations affiliated and brought the party an additional 4000 members. These Were the New Zealand Union of Railwaymen (the old Amalgamated Society of Bailway Servants), the New Zealand Railway Tradesmen's Association, and the New Zealand Locomotive, Engineers, Cleaners and Firemen's Association. These new affiliat'ons jvere made possible by the legislation of the last Government, permitting freedom of political action for Government workers. Under the same legislation affiliation was allowed for the 20,000 workers on the Piiblic Works Department schemes throughout the country. They are members of the New Zealand Workers' Union, which now has; a total membership of 25,000, and as affiliated members of the Labour Party, could apparently contribute their £1 a head to the fund which will be used to fight the election. Money From Unions? In the aggregate, in fact, Labour has a tremendou's potential source of revenue. . Everyone of the many new unions which have been formed in the last year has the right, under the Political Disabilities Removal Act, to contribute part of its funds for the furtherance of political objects. It is probable that a good many of these, as well as many of the older unions affiliated to the Labour Party, will make some contribution. Dne of them, the New Zealand Workers' Union, has already contributed a large sum in affiliation dues; The Federated Cooks' and Stewards' Union voluntarily levied its members to provide 2s 6d each to build up a fighting fund for the party and Sent in the first instalment of £l2l 12s 6d to the head office of the Labour Party. The Labour Party candidates themselves will see only a small ~ - oportion of these possible campaign funds. By law a candidate can spend not more than £2OO oh his election campaign, but there is apparently nothing to prevent national expenditure by a party pa a large scale, ■ - . ..■.■'