NEW TRADES HALL

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 130, 6 June 1929, Page 13

NEW TRADES HALL

ADDRESS BY MR. HOLLAND

LABOUR'S VICTORY IN". BRITAIN

A meeting to commemorate the completion of the new Trades Hall, Vivian street, was -held last evening in the social hall of the building. Mr. E. ,D. Cormveii presided over a large gathering, 1 and in a brief speech traced the development of the movement to construct tile building,and the difficulties. whi.ch had to be surmounted. Other speakers who addressed ' the meeting were Mr. W. Bromley, secretary of the Trades and Labour Coun-cil-Mr. Arthur Cook, president of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour; Mr. B. Sample, M.P., who represented the management committee of tlie~ council: and Mr. H. E. Holland, M.P., leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party. . The speeches were mainly in the nktiire of congratulation. Strong ' appeals -were made to every, section of the Labour movement in the city to- regard the' hall as a home for Labour, and;members were urged to support it by centring their activities there. A concert programme was provided, and the proceedings, concluded, with a dance. In the course of his remarks, Mr: H E. Holland, referred .to the. victory of the Ijaoour Party in the British' general elections. The new Government, he said would have,a very difficult task,,, but woud no doubt achieve results which would benefit the country and the people as a whole. Alluding..to the'; wonderful growth of the Labour movement, -he mentioned that i-.i the election of 1900' the rlnmf ate } Jlih°w:. vofe. -Was i ess , t n a n 63;000, and only t>v o; Xabour. memDers were returned.: :.;lh ■ 1918 fthe number-of votes for Labour increased to about tWo ;ind a quarter million. In 1923, when the Liabonr- Party firstcame into: power,'the poll was four and a : tliird millions. Starting with two representatives in-1900 the number had-grown- t0.67- in -1918, io 191 qnn ' and, no,T had increased;to nearly 300-a remarkable /advance in strength in a tew years. - ;;■:;' «.-..; Z: ":'"\--- .?■■■;■'*■: