"ADVICE" TO LABOUR.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13754, 20 June 1913, Page 8

"ADVICE" TO LABOUR.

Another instalment of gratuitous advice to Labour is presented by tho .squatters' organ. In a nutshell (says the "Now Zealand Times") the official mouthpiece of land monopoly, squattocracy, Toryism,' and class privilege urges Labour to have nothing to do with Liberalism. So anxious is our contemporary for the political future of that element in tho constitution ..which. we have been assured, is entitled to "a place in the sun," that it earnestly exhorts Labour to stand alone even though it should fall. Says the squatters' organ:—"Wo have always expressed the opinion that Labour lias little chance of making any real headway as a definite party in politics so long as it permitted itself to be made the tool of tho other political pnrtios." What next will the Gov->ri;v.'M>t mega-phono conjure in tho way of political hypocrisy? Before tho tast rlwtion, the self-styled "Reformers" as a whole, and the squatters' organ in particular, put a daily strain apon the-ir vocabulary in order to coin honeyi'd phrases to catch the votes of ivorkiiu-; people, to cajole Labour into » friendly attitude In one constituency, :lie Hon. VV. F. Ma.ssey made a melodramatic display of tho withdrawal of the "Rot'orm" candidate in favour ..f the Labourite as proof of the "corrli;J relations" existing between j tho !;ou-.vk.l the. lamb. Tho squatters' organ uns untiring and unblushing in its fflV.rta to flat:.or Labour, and to dem<u!".ir;ite how Angularly identical •were tfi>' interest.:; of that party with those- of "Reform,'' and spoke of "the common grouird between m and Labour." Mow, Labour is gravely counselled fo "prefer defeat rather than individu;;! rictoi^ by moans of bargaining." This from a journal that backs ■" fWorniiK.'iit which is in office in dir<-'ft opposition to the wishes of the ok''"toi-3, and a:; the result of some of tv- ■rost disgr.'-KT-ful bargaining and politic;! 1 ,ireadier/ t!\nt has over stainod th.» i-orords of our Parliament! Just ono inoro point. 4<No oiie for years has taken the Labour party here seriously as a political yarty," declare;! the squatters' or,.;.in. Really, "tlib- is a littif- too much, after tho experi-. onces of tho hist election^ when the "Reformers" from one end of isw Zealand to the other took' Labour sufficiently seriously to flatter, cajole, and coquet for Labour's' support and votos. Even great wool king:! in Hawke's Bay and squattocracy in genoral sacrificed dignity and prido for the time being, and joined in tho adulation of-Labour which was one of "Reform's" principal stage properties, oven to tho extent of sharing their . motor cars with the hornyhanded sons of toil and their wives and daughters. Labour was certainly taken very seriously at that time.