ABIDES AND LABOUR CONFER

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 6

ABIDES AND LABOUR CONFER

The l discjisJsforijK V ; afc -\ the annual and. ILabour: Conference have j' , revealed' tne ; 'delegates/in- their; most • .aggressive,^mobcts .The counsels -of t ich'e reasonable" men' amongst ' them j Ohaye. been*;, wholly / disregarded. •Repudiation!, is the . watchwprd> A ' contract possesses no more sanctity in their eyes than it does, ■ as the \ •history we- published yesterday of the negotiations for the^purchase by \ the State of the Alexandra Bonanza ' rights showed, in the eyes of, the t Government. The State grants a lease -for 999 years- of' a section of . land to a settler upon certain definite terms. It enters into a solemn agreement with him in which •the amount of the rental to be paid ;by him is expressly set out. But that is, *from the point of view of the majority of the delegates at the 'Conference, an immaterial circumstance. The land has been " niched from the people of the countx*y "—" — though when, or by whom, it is not stated; the State has made a bad I'bargain, and it " has, a right to rectify a bad bargain " ; " progress can only be made by repealing obsolete measures." Such are the considera- , tiohs., which:- guided the Conference l.tcf "thje /coneltision that the- State, tttaving granted', several thousand Ueases for 999 years, would-be justir ified n -in repudiating' its undertakings iby rendering them, all subject to a -iperio'dical revaluation. The Otago /and 'Auckland, delegates, to their credit be it- said, resisted as strongly as they could this immoral decision, arid one of them, Mr Paul, whose experience as a member of the Land Commission last year has endowed iiim with a grasp of the land question such as none of his fellow delegates showed, earnestly pleaded with the Conference-- to pause before it adopted a resolution of which the only interpretation is that the official Labour party of the colony has no regard whatever for the principles of honesty where matters concerned with the disposal of the Crown lands are at stake. The State undoubtedly committed a grave blunder whetf it instituted the lease-in-perpetuity, but, as Mr Paul vainly endeavoured to impress upon the Conference, the adoption t of the system was deliberately and' constitutionally resolved' upon, and the engagements- entered into by the Crown with the settlers who L*ve > ;*. selected land upon this form of - tenure' must be honourably observed. •There is' a legal> as well as A moral, obligation upon the State to fulfil tlie terms of the bargain it has made, and when Mr Paul, aat dis- 1 comfited by the fact that he was in ' a rather insignificant minority ie ]

the Conference, expressed himself as satisfied with the result, since " fourteen Labour parties could not enforce such a proposal " — as that for the repudiation of existing contracts — " while we have a Privy Council," he succinctly demonstrated the futility of the attitude taken up by the majority. But the resolution is significant? It illustrates forcibly the dangers which might be incurred if a party,, composed of politicians. ■ committed tc\ a programme; formulated by- the Confer,ence>, were placed in power in the colony. > v The Ministerial organ in Christchurch is frankly alarmed at the. advocacy by the Conference of what it describes as, "unmitigated robbery " and at the handle which, in its opinion, is given to the supporters of the freehold system. We question, however, whether the freeholder would be a bit safer than the

leaseholder if these extremists were in power. If they would, without the smallest qualms of conscience, violate the Contracts that have been made with the leaseholder and decline to recognise any liability to compensate him, they would be quite as likely to confiscate freehold land. Indeed, Mr Hood deliberately expressed the opinion, in the course of the discussion, that " every landowner in the colony is a thief," and Mr M'Laren, who unsuccessfully contested one of the Wellington seats at the general election, gave it as his belief that " the State had the right to resume any land required by the people without paying any compensation." While these are the sentiments entertained by leaders of the- unionists in the colony, the fair-minded and .honestminded- people in the community may reasonably view with apprehension, any efforts that may be to increase the representation of- the organised Labour party in Parliament.