FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 20, 22 January 1913, Page 2

FEDERATION OF LABOUR.

CONFERENCE IN WELLINGTON

(Per Press Association.)

Wellington, January 21

Over 100 delegates are in attendance at the conference convened by the Federation of Labour. The press is not admitted, hut an official report is supplied. Mr. Webb, president of the Federation, said he sincerely an--1 ticipated the outcome would ho the passing of petty divisions over mere details which had characterised the labour movement in the past. He appealed to delegates to let tho dead ('past bury the dead and come together in more perfect unity.

The Hon. John Rigg was elected chairman. On the recommendation of the Federation Executive, Mr. P. Hickey was appointed secretary. Mr. E. Tregear, who was given in ovation, said that although he had been a devoted advocate of arbitration for twenty years, it was not as a sort of education. They had seen it used by employers to break up the large unions that they hated and detested. Mr. Webb outlined the reasons for calling the conference. Referring to what had happened at Waihi and other places in regard to union breaking, he alleged that the engine-diiv-ers formed a separate union at the instigation of the mine-ownerss. it was not the/ Massey Government which had defeated the workers, but their own sectionalism and disorganisation.

Mr. Semple amplified Mr. Webb’s remarks, dealing with “scab union at Huntly on the lines heard before. The Federation had no apology to offer as to the Wailv fight. / It was forced upon them, and it was bettor to have gone down fighting grandly than have shirked the fight. Whatever else they did they could.unite to crush Massey and the crowd that were out to smash the working class organisation with class-made law, the policeman’s baton, and the soldier’s rifle. A QUESTION OF DELEGATES. The Labour Conference spent the whole afternoon discussing a motion to admit delegates from the United Labour Party. Considerable opposition was shown, and finally an amendment to admit two delegates was carried. Then resolutions were adopted to invito the executive of the Socialist Party and two from the League, of Independent Workers of the World, and the conference adjourned.