THE LABOUR MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, 30 December 1892, Page 38

THE LABOUR MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

The following article appeared in a recant issue of the Pall Mall Gazette :-- Too first noticeable point with regard to the Parliament of New Zealand « that it consists of an extraordinary number of different professions, and the Labour party itself does not only comprise a Urge number of aotuel working men in its ranks, but it includes not a few gentlemen of position who have also subscribed to the doctrines of that party. The Parliament used to comit of 9'J members, but it is now United 'to 74 This reduction has been «ff»3ted with a view to economy, all the members being in receipt of ' honoraria ' for their services. Of the 74,10 are lawyers, 10 farmers; 10 landowners, and 10 meiohsnts ; while other seats are filled by four Maoris, a oontraotor, a builder, a painter and glazier, a carpenter, a brassfounder, a lamplighter, a tailor, two bootmakers, and four or five by men who make their livelihood in various undefined ways. The difference between the Labour party in other countries and that •4n New Zealand is a marked one ; for in New Zsaland THBY DO NOT ACT INDEPENDENTLY

df the great parties in the Staie, but have ■entered into negotiations with these parties, aud, finding that they oou d get en better vrith the Radical party, they have entered Jo bo an offensive and defensive alliance with them. The result has been that they have proved of such importance to the Government of the day that it has been found impossible to ignore their wishes both as regards legislative and administrative reform. With regard to the actual men who are members of the Labour party in New Zealand, the onrpenter is probably the most prominent. He is a great believer in Henry George, end has read an immense quantity of literature on social questions. Me is • fluent orator, • man of fairly good education, and although quite young, he is looked upon as the ooming orator of the colony. The brassfounder is a hard work ing, sincere man, with a strong sense of Imperialism, and also of patriotism in the iutorssts of New Zealand. The tailor is a Sootchman, with strocg views on the nub jeot of economy and cheeseparing. . The lamplighter is a thick-and-thin advocate of the interests of the town whioh he represents and whose lamps he once lit; other matters are to him of secondary importance. OF THK MINISTER". The Prime Minister is now a newspaper editor, but was in early life an itinerant vendor of email wares. The Minister for Lands is a Sootob shepherd from Ardross. He is now • strong Radical although it is said of him that when Sir Alexander Matheeon was eleoted Conservative member for Rosshlre he rode all tbe way from the oounty town to Ardross to announce to the family the result of the election. The Minister for Defence is a working miner, while that of Native Affairs is a bushman. The only Minister who possesses a knowledge of the literra hum•oiores is the Minister for Eduoation, who wee educated for the Bar. The general lm pressioo left on the byestander is that the actual working men are characterised by a deep sense of responsibilities of their position, and by a desire, while doing the best they can for their own olass, not to neglect the general interests of the Colony. It is often said by people in this country that the intention of the Australasian working man Is to get as high a rate of wages as possible from the pnblio works, leaving the payment to those who have \more substantial interests in the Colony, remarking that if the taxation beoomea too heavy he can always ' clear/ Now this DESCBIPTTON DOES NOT AT ALL APPLY

to the Labour members of the New Zealand Parliament, who have shown themselves exceptionally zealous in preventing any inorease of borrowing and concomitant increase of taxation. Nor are they unfriendly to the educated as distinguished from the capitalist olaaeee. Their loyalty to the Queen's representative is never for a moment in doubt; and, Indeed, when the l&te Governor, the Earl of 0?slow, left the Colony, the Labour representatives, not satisfied with a costly entertainment ! liven in bis honour by the wealthier nhabitants of Canterbury, at which their means would not enable them to assist, insisted on demonstrating their loyalty by an open meeting in tho largest square In Cbristcharoh, when 10,000 working men assembled to bid him farewell. One great reason of the superiority of the Labonr {(olitieians in New Zealand arises from the aot that they are quite as well educated as the best of the artisans in England. Tbe New Zealand ere are EXCEPTIONALLY PKOTJD OP THBIR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM ;

and the cost of their sohools has been something enormous per head cf the population in comparison with other countries. The sjheme is an entirely secular one, and schools are to be found even in the most remote districts, where the population is necessarily scanty. Speaking at Dunedin at a farewell banquet given in hla honour. Lord Onslow said that his experience of the Labonr members of New Zealand was that they evinced a very grave sense of the serious responsibilities whioh rested upon them as members of Parliament, and that they were unremitting in the discharge of their duties. He further added that he bad no fear of the future of the Empire, in the administration of whioh the democraoy would in future take so large a share; but whet he did fear was the plausiblo demagogue who only used the stalwart ohoulders of tho working man to enable him to climb, if not to power, at least to notoriety. fha complaint made by the colonial workingman of his foliow wovkiugman in England is that tho latter ie too much aogroesed with the matters which more immediately nurround him, and does not give sufficient consideration to the affairs of the Empire as a whole. The Au*tralatian workingman, on the contrary, is always thinking how his action on Labour questions Day sffept Labour ell over tbe woild, and

how the polloy of each individual State may affect the interests of the Empire ol whioh it is his chief pride to be a citizen.