HOW OTAKI MOVES

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8179, 22 July 1912, Page 4

HOW OTAKI MOVES

The posifon of Labor in the Otaki doctorate has reached an interesting stage, and developments that are expected by the end of the month will largely jnflneneo, its future actions and dictate its policy iwrites our Levin correspondent). Mr K. Smith, the secretary of the Otaki "independent Labor_ Party, reI orts that there is a steady _ increase in the membership of the United Labor Party in the constituency. Many of the new members, he says, are of the small farmer class and the email business man. If thw b* so, .and there should be no reason to doubt Mr Smith e statement, it is a notable: fact becanse it defines the line of demarcation between the "small man 0 and Conservatism even more distinctly than has been the case in the past It was a common saying' in the Otaki electorate during the earlier stages of. the last election that

a Labor representative stood no possible chance of success. Although Mr Robertson's victo"i wao brought about by a fortuitous combination of events, the advent of the United Labor Party into the active domain of New Zealand politics hae completely transformed the situation. Hitherto the small man did not receive—so ne contends—what he oucht to hav( received at the hands ot tho Ward Administration. He realises that, except in a case of pressing political expediency, though the words of a Conservator- Government may be smoother than butter, war against organised Labor is in its heart. Now that a political evolutionary movement has come into being these men take courage, tor thev feel that the day of their political redemption ’raweth nigh. In thm constituency are a large number of small tradesmen and small farmers. By progressive legislation these men would benefit very considerably. In the past they have naturally opposed the socialism that has been paraded before their eyes by interested persons, who mad© heavy draughts upon popular credulity. They have observed carefully the actions of Mr J. Robertson, both inside and outside the Douse, nave weighed with caution the policy of the United Labor Party, and have come to see that its objects are, to say the least, not incompatible with their own security and the welfare ot the Dominion. Thu© reason has triumphed over prejudice. Tnat is a notable achievement. To organise a Labor movement dn Now Zealand must necessarily lie a more dilhcult undertaking than in tho urban areas of England, where all the material is to hand wherewith to fashion and mould a campaign, but the educational movement that ’8 now lieing promoted in the Dominion, in having its > desired effect, in pastoral as well as in industrial centres, and at no date it would appear that the destinies ot this country will be entrusted, liy the people, to men whose sole ambition is to govern the good of all, but especially in tho interests of "the common people/'