The Hawera Star. TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1930. LABOUR AND THE TRADE UNIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume L, 26 August 1930, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 26, 1930. LABOUR AND THE TRADE UNIONS.

Delivered every evening by 6 o’olook in Hawera, Manaia, Kaup>konui, Otakeho, Oeo, Pihama, Opunake, Normanby, Okaiawa Eltham, Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi Kakaramea, Alton, llurleyville Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley. Mokoia. Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

It lias been whispered on several occasions this year that the trade unions are not pleased with the attitude of the Parliamentary Labour Party on several points, and the truculent tone adopted by the leaders of the deputation which waited upon the Prime Minister yesterday rather confirms that rumour. Mr Cook, general secretary of New Zealand Workers’ Union, and Mr Walsh, president of the Seamen’s Union, as leaders of the deputation of protest against the proposed unemployment flat tax of thirty shillings per head, took the opportunity to “talk big” to the Prime Minister and the Government. They made it clear that the unions were no parties to the “understanding” which exists between the Government and the Labour Party, and they declared that if the Unemployment Bill came into being they would “be compelled to ask their members not to .assist in carrying it out.” Mr Porbes made the only reply proper under the circumstances; he plainly told the deputation that Parliament would not be brow-beaten by representatives of sectional interests and that the fate of the Bill rested with the House. We are no admirers of this thirty shillings tax, W’hich we regard as an extremely crude method of meeting the unemployment situation—indeed it is a confession of failure and helplessness —but there can be no two opinions regarding the rightness of Mr Porbes’s attitude in the face of not-too-earefully veiled threats on the part of the trade unions. The remarks of the deputation are most significant, however, insofar as they reveal a difference of opinion on some important points between the Parliamentary Labour Party and an important section of the Labour organisation outside Parliament. If the Labour members of the House are running contrary to Trades Hall instructions they are undoubtedly making trouble for themselves. Can it be that the Labour movement in this Dominion is developiing along the lines of Labour in England? If so, it will be interesting to see if the Parliamentary Labour Party here is sufficiently strong to be able to withstand a split in its own ranks and the break away of the extremist sectio'n.