LABOUR VICTORY CELEBRATED

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22437, 25 June 1938, Page 14

LABOUR VICTORY CELEBRATED

Recent Municipal Elections MR SEMPLE THE GUEST OF HONOUR The thorough organisation of the Labour Party in Christchurch was praised by visiting speakers, Including the Minister for Public Works, the-Hon. R. Semple, at a rally of members of the party held last evening. This function was in celebration of the successes of Labour candidates in the recent municipal elections, when Labour won the mayoralty of the city, secured a majority on the Christchurch City Council, all the city seats on the Lyttelton Harbour Board, and a majority of the city seats on the North Canterbury Hospital Board. Mr Semple, as the guest of honour, was received by the Mayor, Mr R. M. Macfarlane, and Mrs Macfarlane. Mr ’J, Roberts, president _of the North Canterbury Labour Representation Committee, was the chairman at the function, and other prominent guests included Mr James Roberts, the national president of the Labour Party, Mr T. H. McCombs, M.P., and Labour members of many local bodies. Mr Roberts, the chairman, described the Christchurch victories at the elections as “the brightest spot in New Zealand,” and spoke of the success of the local organisation, while Mr Macfarlane emphasised the important part in the elections played by a band of enrollers, who in the last few days available secured many additional names. Labour owed them a great debt, he said. “The chairman of the executive of the Citizens’ Association, Mr W. S. Mac Gibbon, has said that many of the supporters of his party did not vote,” Mr Macfarlane said. “But it was fortunate for the Citizens’ Association that they did not. Very few confirmed Tories in the city failed to vote, but had there been a full poll the Citizens’ Association would have almost been wiped out.” “Only a few years ago, it seems, I used to see the Mayor attending Socialist meetings in the Trades Hall and clad in knickerbockers,” Mr James Roberts said. He paid a tribute to the local party’s organisation. Labour had lifted New Zealand out of the morass of the depres-

sion and in 12 months had made it more prosperous than ever before. Labour would do an equally good job for the people of Christchurch. “We are marching on to our greatest victory,” said Mr Roberts. “The newspapers have tried to create a psychology of fear in the Dominion. But there is a psychology of fear here already. It is the fear that the people of New Zealand might get another Government which would throw them back to the terrible days of the depression. It is not any fear of another Labour Government.” Lesson for Labour

In the Christchurch victories Mr Semple, so he told a big audience at the rally, had seen a lesson. The Christchurch Labour people had succeeded because they were undivided in their own ranks. Where there had been a division elsewhere, there had been failure. People ought not to go about the country preaching unity where there was no unity in their own ranks.

The Minister was loudly applauded when he suggested that Mr Macfarlane would repeat his victory in the General Election campaign. “I want you to make the Mayor the next member for Christchurch North,” he said. “If you do that you will be doing the country a great service. For his own sake that man ought to get the knock-out, because he is bound to run amuck sooner or later. I’ll come down to hel£> you, brother, and I think I can, because I know a bit. (Laughter.) And when I know anything I spill the beans.” The Minister was given an enthusiastic reception, being cheered and applauded when he finished his speech.

During the function, which included a dance, Mr H. McCaw presented Mr and Mrs Macfarlane with a mounted photograph of the successful candidates in the elections.