THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 146, 17 December 1915, Page 2

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT

MESSAGE FROM FEDERAL PRIME

MINISTER.

A few remarks upon the Labour movement in Australia and New Zealand were made by Mr. J. Rigg yesterday at a gathering in compliment to Mr M Laracy. Mr. Rigg, who has recently returned from a visit to Australia, said that he had acquired a great deal of valuable information, which, at the moment, was not ordered for effective presentation. Briefly, however, he could say that in Australia,, Labour is king It ruled every position, from the highest to the lowest. As far as he could judee the members of the Federal Parliament were men of exceptional ability and force of character. The man who impressed him above all others was the "Prime Minister, Mr. Hughes. He regarded him as a wonderfully sound, able, and brilliant man. He thought that when the Imperial Conference took place, many of the Prime Ministers of the other Dominions would find it hard to stand on an equality with him. Mr. Hughes was really the intellectual driving force behind the Labour Government for some years past-,1 and he had only now received, a-s Prime Minister, the reward which was his due.

Mr. Rigg said that he had received from Mr. Hughes a message for the Labour Party in New Zealand. It'was as follows :—

" Mr. Hughes sends his best wishes to the Labour Party in New Zealand, and congratulates it upon what has already been achieved there. More has been done than is apparent, and the workers are not to be downhearted if the result is less than they have hoped for. He is sure that when the war is over Labour will everywhere come into its own. Referring to the differences which have existed 'between sections of the Labour Party in New Zealand. Mr. Hughes says the leaders must find a modus Vivendi. They cannot get to heaven by going in different directions."