LABOUR IN POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15997, 16 August 1915, Page 9

LABOUR IN POLITICS.

CRITICISM OF CABINET.

INDEPENDENCE CLAIMED.

[BY TELEGRAPH.PRESS ASSOCIATION-]

IVrjrEDix, Sunday. Speaking at a social on Saturday night, the Hon. J. T. Paul, who holds a prominent position in the Labour Party in New Zealand, said that he had been asked what was to become of the Liberal Party. He believed the parties of Reform and Liberal would never exist again as they did on August 4 last. It wag not a National Government that was in offica to-day; it was a fusion of two parties, because there had been three parties in the House. Two of the parties had decided to unite. It would have been a National Government if it had been composed of members of every party in the House. It was composed of the members of two parties, and was therefore a fusion, which, without any stretch of imagination, might easily end in confusion. The Labour Party's position in connection with this fusion continued Mr. Paul, J was put excellently in the letter of its I chairman, Mr. Hindmarah. to the Liberal 1 Leader, when he said: "The extent to J •which the Labour Party is ...prepared to support or oppose the Government de--1 pends upon the measures brought forward, 1 pends upon the measures brought forward, | and its administration." The Labour | I Party could take no other position- It was a party that bowed to no other party in it« patriotism, and in its desire to see the war brought to a successful conclusion, but it had its responsibiiity»to the people, and that responsibility it would fulfil. The Labour Party must enunciate the principles for which it stood, and if it had become sart5 art of the fusion Government, it would lave had to bury those principles and agree to anything the fusion Governmentdecided to bring inIt was possible for the fusion Government to make a mistake.. It might not impose the war tax on the people who ought to bear it, and. if so. it was the duty of the Labour Party to place that fact before the country. Mr. A. Walker, M.P.. asked what effective force would one Labour representative have had in a Government of 12, and composed of men whose interests were largely apposed to those of the Labour Party? He hoped the taxation proposals in New Zealand would be on the lines of those J brought down last week in Australia.