PARTY DIVISIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 December 1923, Page 9

PARTY DIVISIONS.

LABOUR’S REJOICING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 29. Mr. H. E. Holland is fully entitled to his jubilation over the marked progress made by the Labour Party at the recent general election at Home. Whether or not the increase of Labour’s representation in the House of Common© by some sixty seats is fraught with such tremendous potentialities as the New Zealand Labour Party’s leader depicts is, however, an open question. Of course on the figures as they appear Mr. Holland is justified in assuming that the principles for which the party stands for are finding increasing favour in the Old Country. If 400,000 votes have turned over from Conservatie-m and Liberalism to Labour in a single year then Labour has good ground for making a noise abroad about its achievement. But in drawing comparisons between the position of the English Labour Party and the New Zealand Labour Party the difference between their personnel has to be taken.into accountThere is no need to make odious comparisons. but it is obvious that the English Labour Party has an enormous advantage ’in having such men as Mr. Ramsay MacDdnald and Mr. Arthur Henderson shaping its policy. THE DIFFERENCE. The rapid growth of the English Labour Party during recent years has been, due in large ffifeasure to the disinclination of the old constitutional parties to mak6 any concession to new thoughts and new aspirations. It is only under persistent pressure that the Conservatives and the. Liberals have made grudging advances along the road of progress. Labour has come to realise that if it is to be helped at all it must help itself by such means as it can command. In New Zealand, on th® other hand, Labour ha© hardly had to wait to make its wants known to have them Satisfied. Mr. Ballance and Mr. Seddon gave it very large instalments of its earliest demands. Sir Joseph Ward endowed with force and effect the. more practicable of it- nationalisation schemes, and now Mr Massey is even more eager than were hi© predecessors to conciliate the workers. Had Mr. Holland and hi© friends been content to accept such concessions as they might have obtained without noise or fuss they probably would have been further ahead than they are at the present time.

LABOUR IN OFFICE. Mr. Holland still is dreaming of the day when Labour will be in office, and when, presumably, Mr. Holland himself will be prime Minister. Judging from his speech at Westport the other day, he apparently expects the desire of his heart to be consummated in the near future. “In my opinion,” he is reported as saying, “The British results will have a big influence on the voting in New Zealand in favour of Labour next election, especially if it takes place at an early date.” Just why the “early date” should be necessary to give Labour here the full advantage of the Conservative debacle at Home is not plain, but it is worth recalling that, though Labour doubled it© representation in the House between 1919 and 1922, it made, relatively very little advance indeed in the votes it polled. This, of course, is the real test of a party’s popularity, and applied to the last parliamentary period it shows Labour to have made much less progress than Reform. If Mr. Holland’s dream is to come true, Labour will have not only to revise its policy, but also to amend its methods. MINORITY REPRESENTATION. In the telegraphed reports of Mr. Holland’s speech at Westport there is no indication of his having alluded to the need for electoral reform at Home, as here, and the omission is being made the subject of some comment. According to the cabbs there are 213 m‘ lority repre-

sentatives in the new House of Commons, members, that is, who have been returned by fewer than a majority of the valid vetes polled in the constituencies to which they have appealed. This is the result of the triangular contests between the three parties, and Labour appear* to have benefited, proportionately, from the vote-splitting in a substantially larger measure than has either of its rivals. The same sort of thing has been going on here for years, and Mr. Holland and his friends, as good Democrats, have declared for proportional representation as a remedy; but a© astute politicians they have not shown themselves over anxious to bring the reform into operation. Mr. Holland’s apparent silence on the subject is suggesting that Labour will be well content to continue receiving from the gods such gift© as a defective electoral system may send its way.