LABOUR PARTY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 157, 31 March 1937, Page 12

LABOUR PARTY

Mr. James Roberts Elected National President

After holding office for Hie last three years as vice-president. Air. James Roberts, one of the best-known figures in the industrial. Labour movement, was electetl president of tlie New Zealand Labour Party at yesterday’s sitting of its annual conference. He succeeds tlie Rev. Clyde Carr, M.P. for Timaru, who followed the Hon. W. Nash on his relinquishing the presidency of the party .12 months ago. Mr. Roberts, who is a native of Cork and who is now 5(1, left Ireland at the age of 16. He followed tlie sea for a number of years, and first saw New Zealand in 1899. lie settled in New Zealand in 1901, and was an employee of tlie New Zealand Railway Department for some lime. He also worked on the construction of the Main Trunk line. For a time he was engaged at the Wellington gasworks, and later for some years worked on the waterfront. Mr. Roberts’s association with the Labour movement began in Great Britain, and lie continued to interest himself in Labour questions after be settled in New Zealand. He was appointed secretary of the New Zealand Waterside Workers’ Federation in 1915, and was elected secretary of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour in 1920. He was leader of the Labour section at the National Industrial Conference, convened in New Zealand in 1928, and was the first Labour delegate from New Zealand to attend the International Labour Conference, at Geneva, in 1930. He is at present deputy member of the governing body of the LL.O.