THE TRADES CONFERENCE

Evening Star, Issue 12166, 9 April 1904, Page 6

THE TRADES CONFERENCE

[Special to the Stab.] At yesterd&y afternoon's sitting of the Trades Councils' Conference at ChrHstchurch the following resolution was carried:— "That the Conference should request the Government to introduce legislation providing that where male and female workers are employed they should receive equal pay for equal work, and that the Government should be asked to give effect to this principle in the Education and all other departments where males and females are employed in doing the same class of work." A motion in favor of opening up the country by a system of light narrow-gauge railways was lost on the voices. At the evening sitting the following resolutions were carried:—" That the law for the regulation of local elections be amended to provide that the provisions of the Electoral Act, 1902, apply to gumming ballot papers, closing hotels, prevention of mock ballot papers being used, and the prevention of corrupt and illegal practices." "That the Government should be urged to issue legal tender State notes for the purpose of completing unfinished main tnink and other important railway lines now in course of construction, and" for other permanent reproductive works, with a view to providing a permanent currency as a medium of exchange for the internal trade of the colony." "That an Act be passed making it compulsory that all goods manufactured in the colony should be stamped ' Made in New Zealand,' and that all goods made in factories or be stamped with the name of the actual manufacturers." " That the Conference ' should urge all unionist constituents of members of Parliament who voted against preference of employment to unionists last session to vote against such members at the next election, and that the names of the said members be circulated throughout the colony bv the Executive," "That the Government should be urged to legislate to provide for the right of the people to fish in all rivers, lakes, and running streams in the colony, subject to the necessary close season as provided by law, and that provision be fcade for access to the same by setting aside one chain of land all round the water edge, except within city or village boundaries." '" That the haulage rates of minerals should be equalised." "That the law as between landlord and tenant be placed upon the same footing as any other creditor." " That a uniform set of "school hooks should be adopted by the Education Department for the schools of the colony, such books to be manufactured by the Government and sold at cost price." —An Independent Labor Party.

The Conference, by 16 votes to 5, decided in favor of an independent political Labor party, and it was resolved that when the delegates meet in Wellington to lay before the Government the deliberations of the present Conference they should formulate a constitution and platform, and submit it to the various Councils for consideration. The debate on the proposal gave rise to a most interesting discussion. Mr J. T. Paul, an Otago delegate, in moving the resolution, said he thought the proposal was not intended to bo antagonistic to the party led by Mr Seddon. In Great Britain the Independent Labor party refused to be allied with either of the gTeat political parties. At present there were seventy Labor candidates in the field at Home, and he expected that there would be at least 100 Labor candidates in the field by the time the General Election took place. He thought the next Government would be more progressive than the present one. He considered Mr Massey impossible from a Labor point of view. His views on the land question were sufficient to condemn him in the eyes of the workers. There was so much difference of opinion among the members of the Government party that disruption was inevitable in the near future. He believed that the next Government wouid be formed by those members who are now described in some quarters as being " too progressive." Messrs Coles {Wellington), K T. Young (Wellington), Poster (Westland), Rosser (Auckland), Breen (Otago), and Hood (Otago), who declared that thero were men iu Parliament who were traitors to the Labor party, supported the motion, and Mr Betts (Westland) and Mr Barr (Canterbury) opposed it. The last-named created a mild sensation by mentioning a rumor that the proposal really emanated from a number of self-seekers, and declaiming that it was the experience of old countries that the Labor party were the most corrupt that had ever attained to power. The delegates who voted against tho proposal were Messrs Barr (Canterbury), Newton (Canterbury), and Springer (Canterbury).