LABOUR'S FESTIVAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19158, 26 October 1925, Page 10

LABOUR'S FESTIVAL.

A THREE DAYS' CARNIVAL.

SPORTS MEETING TO-DAY

FIREWORKS IN THE PARK

The Auckland Labour Day celebrations this year are a three-days' affair. They began on Saturday, were continued yesterday, and will reach a climax to-day, when the usual large annual sports meeting will be held in the Domain. Interspersed with the festivities yesterday were a number of speeches by Labour Parliamentary candidates. For legal reasons connected with election expenses and the payment of persons providing entertainment, all the speakers avoided politics, thus making a change, which was perhaps as welcome to them as to their audiences.

A League football match between Ponsonby and Marist Brothers Old Boys at Carlaw Park opened the programme on Saturday afternoon. In the evening, .in spite of a cold southerly wind, a large crowd of people assembled at the park for a concert and display of fireworks. One of the principal attractions was a Maori glee party of ten girls from Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, who had been brought to Auckland for the occasion. Over 30 girls and boys, affiliated with the Auckland Highland and National Dancing Society, marched in procession across the ground, headed by pipers, and gave an exhibition of Highland reels and other dances upon a platform illuminated by floodlights. The performance of the smallest children, some of whom had to be lifted on to the stage, was very heartily applauded by the audience. The Maori girls, and a number of their people who had come to town with them, were very interested in this part of the programme. Their own performance consisted of glees and native ditties, mostly with the undercurrent of sadness to be found in all music performed by Maoris. Although separated from their audience by rather many yards, the girls made their voices carry surprisingly well, and pleased the listeners very much indeed. They were fully as successful in poi dances, to the very faint accompaniment of a ukulele played by someone in the background. The fireworks were a great success, although the high wind made it, impossible to send up illuminated balloons, which were to have been a Special feature. For the same reason, some of the falling stars thrown out by the rockets and other aerial contrivances came blazing to earth, but nobody had cause for alarm. The management did not attempt any setpieces, but in other respects it was a very good display indeed. The Port Auckland Band provided music. Yesterday further entertainments ivere provided at the park by the Maori party and the band, with the addition of vocal items by the Lyric Four and speeches by Labour Parliamentary candidates. The Lyric Four sang several popular glees and part-songs, including a serenade, " Kentucky Babe," " Timhuctoo." and " Tom the 'Piper's Son." Mr. Alan McElwain impersonated " Meandering Monty." and the other three members gave vocal solos —Mr. A. H. Ilipley, " Serenata " (Tosseili); Mr. H. Richards, " Moira, My Girl;" and Mr. J. W. Ryan, "Corporal John Bartholemy." This morning and afternoon the. usual sports will be" held in the Domain, beginning with a basketball tournament at 10 a.m. The sports programme, under the auspices of the Akarana Amateur Cycle and Athletic Club, will begin at 1.15, and will include cycle and foot races for competitors of all ages, and events for ladies. There will also be Highland and other dancing competitions and sports for the Associated Boys' Club. In the evening another concert and fireworks display will be held in Carlaw Park, with the added attraction of an open-air dancing enclosure, with appropriate jazz music. Other Labour Day events include an axemen's carnival at Papakura, the Waikato Hunt Club's meeting at Hamilton, a tournament under the direction of the New Zealand Wrestling Association in the Town Hall, and tournaments on practically all bowling greens in the city and suburbs.

LABOUR'S HERITAGE

BRIGHT FUTURE PAINTED

A SERIES OF ADDRESSES

"Labour Day may be called the May Day of the Southern Hemisphere," said Mr. J. A. Lee in a speech at Carlaw Dark yesterday afternoon, wherein he invited supporters of Labour to take the advance of spring as an augury of the bright future of the world under the beneficent rule of the workers. Other speakers struck the same note, temporarily avoiding the political topics on which they have been discoursing for some weeks past. The first of them was Mr. F. N. Bartram, who spoke of the wonderful progress that Labour was making, politically and industrially. "The time is coining," he said, "when we-will rule this country in the interests of our own class and of humanity as a whole. There should be no glorification of any particular class, but all who render useful service should receive the full reward of that service." Mr. W E. Parry attributed all the present-day unrest and turmoil in the world to the unequal distribution of wealth. Mr. Lee urged the workers to realise that they were not merely hewers of wood and drawers of water, but capable of shaping their industrial, economic and political destiny. He believed that the product of workers' labour, intelligently distributed, would provide a decent livelihood for all who worked. Labour had often been accused of promoting violence, but Labour's opponents must bear the responsibility for the late war. Labour's policy was not violence in any form, not enmity, but amity. Mr. A. G. Osborne briefly appealed for solidarity, and Mr. P. F. Way dilated on the sacredness of human life and the need for providing everyone with a good home.

In the evening Mr. M. J. Savage closed the series with an exhortation to visualise Labour's great heritage. "It will be admitted by all thinking people that Labour is on the move," he said: "Get together industrially, get together on the industrial field, and the game is yours." Mr. Savage explained that his apneal was to those engaged in public services and to wage-earners generally. "The government must be you," ho declared. "The time is here when yon shall band yourselves together, knowing what you want and by what means you will obtain it. It is yours for the asking. The workers of the British Empire can gain their objective without so much as knockinp a piece of skin' off anybody else." He urged all to break down petty divisions and to realise the power of unity.