FINTAN PATRICK WALSH DEAD

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30133, 17 May 1963, Page 10

FINTAN PATRICK WALSH DEAD

Colourful, Controversial Industrial Leader (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 16. Mr Fintan Patrick Walsh, president of the Federation of Labour since 1953, died in the Wellington Hospital at 3 a.m. today. He was 67.

Mr Walsh had been in poor health for about 18 months, suffering from a recurring chest complaint. On Monday he was admitted to hospital with heart trouble. It was barely two weeks since he had left his sick>bed to run the annual conference of the Federation of Labour which he had dominated for the last 10 years.

His ill-health had shown at the conference. He was unable to complete reading his presidential address, and several times had to leave the platform.

A few days later, however, he was back in action, addressing the Labour Party conference and attending a national executive meeting of the Seamen’s Union.

Mr Walsh was a controversial figure, and his long career was marked by many fierce elashes —with employers’ groups, with leading union officials, and with Cabinet Ministers of both Labour and National Governments.

His clashes during the postwar struggles of the labour movement were essentially those of a moderate with extremist elements. Once he quelled the opposition to him he ruled the F.O.L. firmly and brought an era of peace to industrial relations

A series of libel actions followed some recent clashes with conservative elements These actions damaged the prestige of .the F.O.L. Mr Walsh, who was born in Poverty Bay, was a shepherd or. his father's farm before going to sea as a greaser in the Union Company’s vessel. Tamahine. In 1927 he became president of the Federated Seamen’s Union, an office that he had held ever since. In 1937 he played a prominent part in the movement that led to an amalgamation of the old Alliance of Labour and the Federation of Labour.

After serving as vice-presi-dent of the F.O.L. he became president after the death of Mr A. W. Croskery in 1948. During the Second World War, Mr Walsh was appointed by the Fraser Government as chairman of the Stabilisation Commission which was charged with steering tire New Zealand economy during the war and post-war periods. He held this post until the commission was wound up in 1950. His report to the Federation of Labour conference in 1947 on the country’s economy became one of the most quoted economic documents of the times. During Britain’s immediate post-war troubles between ending of Lend-Lease and the granting of the Washington loan. Mr Walsh headed the Aid for Britain campaign in New Zealand in which all sections of the community were urged to produce more

arid transport it swiftly to ease Britain’s plight. During this era he emerged as the implacable enemy of the militant Waterside Workers’ Union. He was very close to the Labour Prime Minister, Mr Peter Fraser, who consulted him on a wide range of problems, both industrial! and economic. .From 1942 to 1949 he was a member of the Cost Commission that dealt with prices to be paid to producers for a big range of farm output. During the period of bulk purchase of New Zealand meat and dairy produce. Mr Walsh was frequently a member of missions representing the Government and pro-

ducers that went to London to negotiate with the British Ministry of Food on the prices to be paid. For many years Mr Walsh was the workers’ advocate in every application to the Arbitration Court for general wage increases.

After Communists won control of the World Federation of Trade Unions in 1949, he played a leading pairt in taking New Zealand unions into the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. Mr Walsh, who was also a dairy farmer with a large property at Featherston, was. for a period, a member of the Dairy Products Marketing Commission.