THE TRADES COUNCIL AND THE PREMIER.

Evening Post, Volume LXIII, Issue 92, 18 April 1902, Page 2

THE TRADES COUNCIL AND THE PREMIER.

The address prc-.entad to the Premier by tho .workers of Wellington prior to his departure for London w.i^ tho cause of xiuusual liveliness vi the meeting of the Trades Council last night. The action of Mr. H. C. Jones in signing the address as President of the Council was minutely, and for the most part adversely, criticised. 1 The President, in explanation, stated that he was unable to communicate with his executive officers, and therefore used his own discretion in the matteaj He would whenever it was possible consult his officers before committing the. Council, but thero wero occa&ious when he had to act on his own responsibility. If the delegates thought he was a machine which could move only by the pulling of a string, tho booner they got another President the better. Mr. Cooper, Secretary of the Trades Council, also made an explanation. He had attached hiy name to the addiess under a misapprehension. When the document was brought to him he was very busy, and had not time to read it. The gentleman who brought it assured him thcro was nothing political in the wording, and that above all there was nothing Jingoistic. The novelty of placing his signature to an address to tho^Premier which contained no reference' to the Union Jack, "our boys," or the Empire evidently threw Mr. Cooper off his guird, for ho wrote his name on tho paper without investigation. "But," he said, "I did it as a private individual, and had I known tho wording of that address I would rather have cut off my right hand than have signed it." After considerable bickering it was resolved that the explanations of tlio President and Secretary be accepted, but that a request be made to those who havo charge of the address to expunge the words "Secretary Trades and Labour Council" -\fter Mr. Cooper's name, as he had no intention of signing in that capacity. Some opinions expressed in the course of the discussion : — "The whole thing was got up by men in Government billets or men who wanted Government billets." "Practically it was the work oi' tho Government Printing Office, and was boomed for all it was worth by an officer of the Labour Department." "Some of those who signed the address did so because ■ they feared that their names would not catch Mr. Seddon's eye on the national address, so they took the opportunity of putting them down again where they jould bo more easily discerned. Perhaps they thought he would dream of them on the voyage, and lie awake at night scheming what he could do for Bill and Jim on his return." {Far continuation of Nars ire ]>afle 7.)