LABOR RALLY.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 10562, 16 April 1928, Page 5

LABOR RALLY.

WHAT MR COLEMAN DID SAY IN WELLINGTON. DEVELOPMENT OF LABOR MOVEMENT. „ To Mi- D. W. Coleman (Mayor oi Gisborne) we are indebted for-, a correct statement of the . remarks, which, he made at the Labor rally at Wellington on Sunday, the BtlV. inst. “We are met in Wellington,” Mr . “Coleman said, “as representatives of the New Zealand Labor Party. To the average person the Labor Party is merely a political party. Admittedly an important party, a party destined to • play an active nnd important part in the politics ! > • ; and government of the country; but still, just a political party. To those of ns who are in the party, and are taking a forefront part, it is more thaii! a political party, it is part of a - great movements—the Labor movement. When yon speak of the Labor movement, the very word suggests-,progress in some direction. It calls up the idea of a, goal to be attained. The Labor movement’s aim. has always been the emancipation of the workers. Jn the days of the Magna Charta and Corn Laws the fight was of the Labor movement and for the emancipation j of the masses against the oppress- / ion of that. day. Its aim has alr'\ ways been- the same. It has had to : fight for its existence. "• It has had to light against kings, against nobles, yes, and it: ha-s had to fight . against hierarchy of the church. .By each of these ruling classes it has • ifeen oppressed, and when it could suffer no more it has revolted. With each revolt, the net'd for organisation was more forcibly impressed upon the hearts aud minds of the workers, until to-day we find the world-wide Labor movement. Certainly different countries adopt different methods and tactics. Some countries adopt such methods anil tactics that could not, and would not be tolerated in this country. All English-speaking countries have adopted and are working along constitutional lines to secure their objective.”

Mr. Coleman then went oil to explain the objective and platform of the N.Z. Labor Party. He said: “Wo are termed, by our opponents as. extremists, as a revolutionary party. When the platform of the Labor Party is in operation in New Zealand, something ’like a revolution will have taken place. But the method will have caused no violent dislocation of the social system —-there will have been no con--suming flames and no piled debris. Every result we achieve is, and will lie, by evolutionary methods and by constitutional means. Tliev will be enacted because the people of the country accept them—because the people of the country understand them, and vote for the party that will bring them in and sympathetically administer them.” It is pleasing to have this opportunity of placing before our readers u true report of what Mi- Coleman said at the. Labor rally in the Empress Theatre in Wellington. It will be seen from the above report that Mr Coleman was presenting a brief history of the infancy of the Labor movement, which, as he says, dates back to Magna Charta. His remarks about “kings, nobles, and the church” had. therefore, nothing to do with our day. As. is wellknown, the abbreviated and incorrect , report reprinted from the Dominion Jy into this journal occasioned some cor- ■ -respondents in our columns, including a letter by Mr J. M. Beeves. After learning the true facts, from. Saturday’s local papers. Mr Beeves entireiv withdraws liis criticism in a. further communication in to-day’s issue. We approve of his action in doing so and ourselves regret not only having reprinted the erroneous statement from the Dominion, but also that the fact that such re-publication should have submitted Mr Coleman to criticism which the true report of his remarks published to-day shows he should not have suffered. PROTEST AT LABOR CONGRESS. When the Labor Congress resumed its sittings on the Monday, Mr Nash, according to the official minutes, moved the suspension of Standing Orders to allow-Mr H.-E.-Holland,- M.R., to move a resolution relative to press misrepresentation of a speech made at the demonstration the previous evening, and the suspension was agreed upon. Mr Holland then stated that- the Dominion newspaper, in a short, halfinch report of Mr D. W. Coleman’s fifteen minutes’ speech the previous evening,; had stated that Mr Coleman had said:—• “The Labor Party has to tight the King, the nobles, and the church” whereas Mr Coleman’s speech contained an historical reference to past struggles, in which he stated that the Labor movement had, in the past, always fought on the side of the mass of the people, against kings, nobles and, in many cases, the church. He therefore moved: “That this conference registers its strongest protest against the wholly false and misleading r ®P ort iu this morning's Dominion of the utterances of Mr D. W. Coleman, Labor Mayor of Gisborne at last J night’s demonstration.” Mr G. T. Holler, seconded, and expressed the opinion that the resolution did not go far enough. The resolution was carried unanimously. AN APOLOGY(To the Editor.) Sn, —I have seen in the Gisborne Tunes and Poverty Bay Herald a correction of the incorrect.- statemen attributed to Mr Coleman by . the “Dominion”.; The correction shows that others, like myself, must have been grossly misled, as to what he said in . Wellington. What added to the niiscmci was . that the erroneous statement was set out in the form of a quotation, making it appear, to Be lus actual \vords. This incorrectly reported statement caused me to _P eu letter to your journal. Mr Coleniau makes it clear in your contemporary that at the ; time he-was—to'use Ins own ■'words—-“making an historical, a - iusion to the growth of the Labor movement front the time of Magna Charta and the' Corn Laws , and, further, “that his remarks bad no allusion to the present day. ifle actual statement that lie made i entirely different in its effect lu . the r incorrect statement that was at first published. Had Mr Coleman s remarks been correctly reported, neither 1..n0r any other, person could possibly' have (objected to; them.'. Naturally, I am .sorry that A was. misled and now. - wish ..publicly, to withdraw;: in their entirety, the conten of my previous. letter; and apologise to Mr Coleman for such pam as my letter' mav have caused him. —1 am yours,-etc:; .:- J. 31. REEVES. Gisborne, April 14.