INDEPENDENT LABOUR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 48, 25 August 1911, Page 6

INDEPENDENT LABOUR.

No form&l alliance exists between the co-called "Reform Party" and that loose and rather indefinable organisation termed the New Zealand Labour Party, and no fiuch union could exist except during a brief term, when each patty might be hoping to make the other one play cat to its monkey for the chestnuts. Tfet it is possible to suppose An accidental alliance unsought by either of the two organisations. By a strange process of thought, which we are unable to fol* low, soJrie of the Labour spokesmen persist in thinking that labour is not receiving a fair share of the paged in the bulky Statute Book. In fact, Mr. D. M'Laren has pathetically pictured labour as A beggar whining vainly on the doorstep of a house which Bhould be labour's home. Mr. Massey'e party holds exactly the opposite opinion, and the public are required to find the truth between the two extremes. We Are satisfied that the general opinion is that j Labour has not laeßed fair treatment in' the House of Representative* during the past two decades. % Labour has been granted a® much a« the country could j afford, and this "as much" has not been a beggarly pittance. However, the heads of the Trades and Labour Councils think otherwise, and they covetJ ft brand new party of their own, not branded "Reform" nor "Liberal," but "Independent Labour." The flag that was unfurled in !1905' And 1908, and waa cast down, has been, picked up, and is fluttering out now in the breeze of high hope. The major-generals, the colonels, and the captains are confident of at least A moral victory, even if the battle goes against them at the polla, but what doeß the Army think? In a few months the major-generale, tho colonels, And tho captains will know. We do not believe that the army will take the road /selected by the officers. Labour candidates have been nominated for all the Wellington city and district seate, but the only one with A chance worth a second thought is Mr. D. M'Laren, the sitting member for Wellington East. A fihare in a " moral victory " will be the b«t that the others can hope for. We do not cAy this disrespectfully. It ia a matter of common-sonee. Wo se6 no evidence that Independent Labour will achieve very much more At the next elections outeide of Wellington province than in this province. Great things are expected from the oratory of Professor Mills, of America. Thia genial visitor i* a likeable man, And an ad* mirable speaker ia some respect*, but he does not wield the force to weld the raw material of Labour. Mr. M'Laren has aiao been appointed an. organiser, but for all his earneetnesa and his industry in preparing hie theme*, Mr. M'Laren is not a galvanise?, not A political electrician. He cannot thrili, ho cannot compel. His composition laoks the vitalising element necessary for organising triumphs. Labour, too, i« hindered by the noisy ultra-SociAliei«, the raucous Revolutionaries, with all their clamour for general strikes, And their contempt for conciliation and Arbitration procedure. Moderate Labour has seneibly dissociated itself from the wild lurid doctrine of the Red Socialist*, but the nonsense preached by some members of the New Zealand Federation of Labour (quite distinct from the Labour Party) may injure the genuine Labour cause.

The big slip which occurred on the Hutt-rOad some time ago is not yet cleared away, and many men are still employed at it. Th© length of time occupied m the work of removal will give some idea of tlte large quantity of earth which was dislodged. Some of the spoil is being emptied into the harbour jnst^ across the railway tracks, but Most of it is being used to fill up and level the railway yard at KaiwaH'a. All the slip should be removed either at the end of this week or the beginning of next. In the meantime traffic on the road has not been in the least interfered with, and this no doubt h tbs reason wby the wort: ha* got beeu hurried moxf.