THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906. THE BRITISH LABOUR DELEGATES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13096, 8 February 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1906. THE BRITISH LABOUR DELEGATES.

For the first time in the history of England Labour has now become a recognised power in the politics of Great Britain. The event is probably a greater one than it appears, in spite of the recognition which has greeted the appearance of a new political party in the House of Commons. It is true that Labour, and the large section of the people that has lived by labour, has for a good many centuries been more influential in England than in most other European countries. Since the time, now almost six hundred years ago, when Wat Tyler and his followers practically swept away the last traces of serfdom from England, the position of the worker in the British Islands has been better by far than that of the workers of Russia to-day. or of those of France little more than a century ago. His rights, in the eye of the law, were the same as those of other classes of citizens ; and he was at least supposed to be represented by the elected members of the Parliament of the country. It. need hardly be said, that theory and practice in these respects did not always or fully agree, and yet the existence of the theory remained as a protest against practical in-

equality, and an ideal that was certain, sooner or later, to lead to development. Like everything else in the social as in the scientific world, the last half-century has witnessed a development of this ideal almost startling in its rapidity. From the day when the terms of the electoral franchise ceased to recognise property as practically the only title to political power, and began to recognise the right of manhood as such to political influence, the doom of the old order of things in politics was sealed and the new era inaugurated. Each amendment of the electoral law has added something to this recognition, and each new Parliament has reflected the fact in an increased attention to the needs of industry. England is proverbially slow to change, and her remarkable history during the last six centuries may bs quoted as a justification of this deliberate progress, but it may bo accepted as a fact that she has at last reached the point where the influence of that class of society so long kept in the background will become one of the most important in the politics of the country. The change is one that will be viewed differently by different minds; but at least it will be admitted by all thoughtful persons that it was inevitable. The theory that all Englishmen were free and self-governing demanded the appearance of a party of Labour in the House of Commons, and will demand an everincreasing influence for the opinions and needs of industry in the legislation and policy of the nation.

The objection so long and so often urged against the admission of the classes of industry to the electoral franchise in England, and to all the power likely to follow upon its exercise, has been, the probability that it would be exercised selfishly and ignorantly. It would be foolish to deny that there was force in this objection. Selfishness, however, is in no way—probably in no degree confined to the workers of society ; and ignorance is a disability that can very rarely be got rid of in any class except as the result of some recognised responsibility. It is gratifying to find that already the new sense of responsibility is urging the Labour party in the British Parliament to fit itself for the duties of its new position. The proposal to send a representative commission to the colonies to confer with the Labour organisations of Greater Britain is one that reflects great credit on the wisdom of the leaders of the new party, and, indeed, promises much for the future of the Empire. If the purpose of the commission is, as we may hope it will be, not a merely class objection the one hand, nor one founded only on the ideas and wishes of that part of the nation which still inhabits the British Isles, on the other, but that of seeing for themselves and learning at first hand what the colonies and their experience can teach them, they may hope to bring into the House of Commons greater knowledge instead of greater ignorance than that of any other of the parties they will meet there. The | complaint of the colonies has long been that the English Houses of Parliament, while professing to represent an Empire, are ignorant of the Empire which they represent for all truly Imperial purposes. It has been a rare and unusual thing to see a member of the British Parliament in the colonies ; it has been all but unheard of that a leading member of the Ministry thought it. worth while to see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears what, the colonies and their people had to teach. And yet, rightly understood, there is at this moment no sort of knowledge more needed by a member, or a party, in the Parliament of England. In the past we have had enough, and possibly more than enough, of the policy of drift in colonial affairs, so far as England was concerned. The mistake was not, indeed; a fatalperhaps it was hardly a seriousone while these new .States of the Empire were still very young and comparatively unimportant. Too little interest in their affairs was then, it may be, | less dangerous than too great an in- j terest would have been had it led to interference with their natural development; but to-day it is no exaggeration to say that England and her rulers can hardly know too much of the experiences and the consequent opinions on Imperial questions of the States of Greater Britain. It has been natural, perhaps, that the strenuous life and democratic ideals of these new countries should not appeal greatly to the class from which hitherto the English Parliament has been mainly recruited. There was naturally little to attract any but the most energetic and adventurous of the socalled upper classes in the life of Newer Britain ; but there should be much both to attract and educate the members of the new Labour party. If the commissioners have been selected from the most intelligent and common-sense members of the party, as no doubt they have, they should learn much that is valuable to the cause of Imperial unity, and hardly less to the cause of social and industrial progress in England itself. Coming, as they do, from a country in which, the old class prejudices are still prevalent to the colonies, where such things are either non-existent or are merely tolerated as harmless absurdities, they may obtain a glimpse of a more up-to-date condition of society than any they have yet known. Seeing for themselves—not, let us hope, with eyes blinded by visions of an impossible socialistic paradise — they should carry back with them many valuable hints as to the reasonable scope and inevitable limitations 01 what can be accomplished for industry by the help of legislation in the older community of the Mother Country itself.