LABOURS FUTURE AND THE PRESENT POSITION DUE TO LEADERS' DIFFERENCES SOME PLAIN SPEAKING.

Evening Post, Volume xc, Issue 79, 1 October 1915, Page 3

LABOURS FUTURE AND THE PRESENT POSITION DUE TO LEADERS' DIFFERENCES SOME PLAIN SPEAKING.

Some candid expressions of opinion regarding the present position of Labour and what it is hoped to accomplish in the future were given at a valedictory function tendered yesterday afternoon to Mr. John Rigg, ex-M.L.C, and for many years associated with the leadership of the Labour movement here, who is leaving for Australia to-day. Mr. P. J. O'Regan presided, and there was present a representative attendance of men prominent in Labour circles, including the Hon. J. T. Paul, M.L.C., Messrs. W. A. Veitch, M.P., and A. Walker, M.P., and the secretaries of several industrial unions. Mr. Veitch said there was no doubt that the weakness of the Labour movement was largely due to the fact that the leaders could not agree among themselves. It was to be regretted that a man who had for twenty years been aLabour representative in the Upper House should be lost to the service of the country. He wished Mr. Rigg the best of experience, and hoped to see him back in New Zealand before long, and not long after that in the Legislative Council again. Mr. J. E. Jenkinson, ex-M.L.C, remarked that no man more deserved the gratitude of the Labour Party than Mr. Rigg, for it was largely due to his energy, enthusiasm, and whole-hearted-ness that much of the Labour legislation was on the Statute-book to-day. He only hoped that when he came back the Labour Party would see that he was put in a position that he deserved to occupy "EXCEPTIONALLY DISGUSTED." Mr. W. T. Young, secretary of th* Seamen's Union, stated that if all men in the Labour movement in this country possessed the tact and ability of thft man who was about to leave these shores, then New Zealand would be as it should be. It was only when men in the movement he (Mr. Young) was associated with possessed that tact, reason, and ability, and came to understand that the party was not standing on a. platform of methods, but a. platform of principles, then, and then only, would Labour come into power in this country. " I say it very plainly, and. without attempting to hide anything," said Mr. Young, " that I am exceptionally disgusted with the Labour movement in N«w Zealand. lam exceptionally disgusted with some- of the men who are associated with it, " because there are some in the movement in this country whose actions and methods did nothing else but to keep up the division existing, and the time has arrived when we should consider, in a movement such as this, that we have men and women who look to us to improve their lot, and I should very much like to see — and I presume I express the opinion of pretty well everyone in the room — the Labour movement of New Zealand banded into one solid organisation for the protection of those men and women. If this were so, 1 believe that some of the conditions that are pitted against the working classes in this country would immediately ceaee. So long as we keep divided they will not cease." Mr. Young then referred to the fact that Mr. Rigg had been the chairman of the largest Congress of Labour (■hat had ever assembled in Australasia, and as one who took a very deep interest in its deliberations he (Mr. Young) had no hesitation in saying that there was no man who could have handled 400 delegates like Mr. Rigg had done. TORY LION AND LIBERAL LAMB. Mr. H. Atmore urged that Labour could do nothing while- it was divided. j It could do nothing through the Arbitration Court, it could do nothing through its unions. It could only get what Labour should have when it captured the taxation machinery. Mr. A. Walker said that as secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party it gave him very much pleasure to be a medium of giving Mr. Rigg a letter crediting him as being a bona fide representative of the working people of this Dominion, and he was sure Mr. Rigg would have entry into the Labour circles of Australia. He agreed with the sentiment that unity was required for the future, and he believed that with unity they were going to emerge from future battles much bo their material interests. Mr. H. E. Holland said the Tory lion had laid down with the Liberal lamb I in the House of Representatives — the lamb was inside and had been chawed np by the lion. (Laughter). There was now a straight-out Labour Opposition in Parliament, and he was quite sure that Labour would be able to return a large J number of representatives at the next j election, and eventually take charge politically and so industrially. Mr. M. Laracy, secretary of the Shear ers' .Union, referred to the formation of the A.P.W. (Agricultural and Pastoral Union of Workers), which he said waa on the same lines as the Australian Workers' Union. From this new industrial organisation there was going to spring_ a powerful -political organisation of which they would all be proud. UNITY, THE ONLY REMEDY. Mr. D. Moriarty, secretary of the Fur niture Trade Workers' Union, also expressed his confidence in the A.P.W. The trouble in tbe past had been that Labour leaders had looked for the limelight in the cities, and it was now a matter of I getting into the backblocks among the i workers. When this new organisation was properly established, the farmers ! were going to wake up. Mr. L. M. A. Rearden, secretary of I the Trades and Labour Council, also i spoke hopefully of the future of the new j organisation, and also commended the ! work done by the Trades and Labour Council in the past. j Mt. W. C. Noot, secretary of the Tramwaymen's Union, on behalf of Labour sympathisers, presented Mr. Rigg with a pair of ebony-backed, suitablyinscribed military brushes. In replying, Mr. Rigg, after expressing bis gratitude for the kind expressions of good will and the presentation, said it was customary to refer to members of the Legislative Council as " fossils," but the Council had don* Tiuch useful -wwk as far as Labour legislation was coifI cerned. He believed that the salvation of the future would' be through State Socialism, and that only. Possibly ho might remain in Australia for a while, but he would return in time for the next electon, for he would never bo satsfiod until the Massey Government was out of power. Had he been more accommodating, more agreeable to Vbe party then in power, he would probably have been reappointed to the Council, but he did not regret the result* He had admitted privately, and ho admitted that day, that the Massey Government had done exactly to him what he would have done to them had ho been in their position. He believed that when unity was attained, and the Labour movement started to progress, it would travel all the faster after its long suppression, and that before many years were past there would, be a Labour Government in power. (Applause.) For Chronic Chest Complaints, Woods' Grfi*t Pana«rmint Cur«, 1(1 6d.