OTAGO LABOUR COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3275, 20 December 1916, Page 29

OTAGO LABOUR COUNCIL.

At a special meeting of the Otago Labour Council on the 13th a communication from the National Executive of tho United Federation of Labour was considered. It invited the council to be represented at a conference of Labour organisations to bo held in Wellington on the 20th inst. for the purpose of discussing what steps, if any, should be taken to try to secure the repeal of the Military Service Act. After a lengthy discussion It was decided not to be represented at the conference. It was also decided that in future an official report of the business of the council bo supplied to tho local press and to the Maoriland Worker for publication; the reports to be submitted bv the secretary. At a meeting of the Otago Labour' Council held on tho 13th it was resolved —"That this council enters an emphatic protest against the attempt of tho Government to assume a dictatorship over the people of New Zealand per medium of tho war regulations, and especially denounces the regulation which declares ' seditious intention and seditious tendency' to mean 'an intention or tendency to excite disaffection against the Government of New Zealand '; the council believing that only by the keenest vigilance and persistent agitation can the Government be forced to do its duty to the masses of the people, especially in connection with the cost of living, and give practical effect to the wishes of tho people in the matter of remuneration to soldiers and their dependents."