Early Days Of Labour Recalled By Mr Nash

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30219, 26 August 1963, Page 10

Early Days Of Labour Recalled By Mr Nash

Mr Walter Nash told an audience of 230 of some of the lighter moments of the New Zealand Labour Party when he spoke at a dinner held in his honour by the St Albans inter-branch council of the New Zealand Labour Party on Saturday

evening. Mr Nash recalled his first visit to Christchurch in 1910, a year after he arrived in New Zealand. He spoke at the Caledonian Hall The subject, he said, was teen-agers and sexual offenders.

He recalled visiting Mr H. Holland in a Wellington prison after a meeting in Newtown Park. Mr Holland told him: “I did not say what they said I said. But if I did I’d justify it" Mr Nash described Mr M. J. Savage's qualities as a campaigner, Mr P. Fraser’s abilities to produce ideas, and Mr R. Semple's ability as a speaker. "Joe had the votes, Peter had the brains, and I had to do the work,” he said. Speaking of the Labour

Government’s 14 years of office from 1935 to 1949. Mr Nash described the introduction of social security as the best legislation produced in this country. “The economy would not be so good today if it had not been for that social security,” he said. Mr Nash described the present Labour Party, led by

Mr A. H. Nordmeyer, as a ‘magnificent body of men.” “I have got a conviction that Arnold will win,” he said. Among the other speakers were Mr N. E. Kirk, M.P., vice-president of the party; Mr J. Quickenden, chairman of the St. Albans branch, and Mr T. Ryder, the vice-presi-dent; Mr N. G. Pickering, former Labour member for St, Albans; and Mr J. Palmer, the present candidate for St. Albans.

Mr Kirk said that Mr Nash had shown courage and foresight in the early years of the Labour Party. No-one, he said, gave more support to the trade union movement. Mr Nash's reputation overseas now was a monument to his greatness, he said, and everywhere in New Zealand people asked: “How’s old Waiter?”

Mr Quickenden, paying tribute to Mr Nash, said that the founding of the Labour Party in 1916 led to the good living conditions of today, and Mr Nash was one of the founders of the party.