LABOR CONFERENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 31 January 1912, Page 7

LABOR CONFERENCE.

PLATFORM PLANKS ADOPTED

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.

(Received Jan. 31, 11 ..a.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 31. Statements made at the Labor Conference that the State Government was paying an engineer on one of its boats lower wages than the recognised Union rates, led to strong protests and a resolution was carried that when the Government coiters into competition with private enterprise in shipping it should pay the ruling rate.

The Conference adopted planks of a fighting platform in the following order: Constitutional reform, including abolition of the Legislative Council, and .substituting Iherefpr .initiative by referendum; abolition of: the office of State Governor; effective land settlement, embracing the cessation of the .sale of Crown lands; State bank, and taxation of land values; nationalisation of . the Health Department, providing free m'adical and nursing services, State maintenance of hospitals, and supervision of dangerous and unhealthy occupations; equitable industrial laws, with regulation hours of labor, and a minimum wage. Plank 5 favors free .secondary, technical, and University education,.and free school material; plank 6 advocates tho establishment of State ironworks.