"RIDICULOUS STORY"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19031, 3 June 1936, Page 15

"RIDICULOUS STORY"

LABOUR PARTY & MAORIS PRIME MINISTER'S REPLY NO POLITICAL INFLUENCE ■•I (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Commenting to-day on the message from Gisbome about the reported political activities among Maoris on behalf of the Labour Party, the Prime Minister, the Et. Hon. M. J. Savage, stated that- the thing was ridiculous. "Our job," he said, "is to deal sympathetically with the native race. It is not a question of or whether thev are members of the Lab..;. Party. "Anyone who spreads talk o. that kind is not helping the Labou, Party, except helping to bring it into disrepute.

"When we make it a condition that they have to join the Labour Par!/, before they can get anything in the way of redress of grievances, we wil bet* showing ourselves unfitted for the position we occupy. The. Maoris wil: be treated in the same way as otbei people in jjoinhig a union. "'Men, whether Maori or pakoba, on public: works will have to be member. ' of the New Zealand Workers' Union. The Maoris have asked for equal treatment with the pakeha, and they will get it. That that they will have to join unions to help earn the benefits that unionism brings. "That has nothing to do with the Labour \Paxty, which is a political organisation. They can join it it' they want to. When a Maori makes application for a job he will be judged on I his qualifications, not on his politics."