LABOUR IN CONFERENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1930, Page 15

LABOUR IN CONFERENCE

THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK THE PARTIES IN PARNELL. j THE OBJECTIVE OF SOCIALISM. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, April 22. The Labour Conference, which lias been sitting in Wellington during the holidays under the presidency of Mr. James Thorn, takes credit to itself for having 115 delegates in attendance, the largest on record since its formation fourteen years ago. The gathering certainly is displaying enthusiasm enough and to spare, and having made up its mind that the other two political parties that really matter, United and Reform, are on the eve of amalgamation, it sees a spacious time unfolding for Labour. The flaw in the conference’s expectation, however, lies in the fact that Mr; Thom and hie colleagues have made no arrangement for the reception of the disgruntled Uniteds and the disgruntled Reformers who may be disinclined to join in the amalgamation of the two older parties. At the general election of 1928 Labour was in a minority of 328,149, and, assuming that there were no increase in the number of electors meanwhile, it would require at least 165,000 additional votes to give Mr. Holland and his followers a majority in the House of Representatives. This huge acquisition of strength does not seem probable at the moment. So far Wellington, outside of immediate political circles, is not greatly agitated over the Parnell by-election, j which is to take place only a fortnight | i hence. It is understood that Mr. En- ! dean, the Reform candidate, has been ' selected to contest the seat in justiI fication of his party’s conviction that ! what Parliament needs more than anyI tiling else at the present time are men of culture and social standing. The mission of Mr. Endean will be to supply these needs, without any particular regard to the prejudices of party. Mr. W. A. Donald, the United candidate, is handicapped to some extent by having an older brother already in the Cabinet, but with youth and a pleasant pereonal- : ity, as well as war service, on hie side, ' he may justify the expectations of his i friends. Mr. Bloodworth, it seems, is i to have a whole army of speakers at his ’ back ■on the conclusion of the Labour I conference; but this sort of thing can be overdone when the candidate concerned can epeak for himself. In the course of his presidential address at the opening of the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party Mr. Thorn “plainly stated,’’ as he said, the objective of the party. “The aim of the New Zealand Labour Party,” he declared, “is that the country’s natural resources and the labour of its population shall be socially organised in order to assure to every man and woman who renders useful service the elements of a full life. Our purpose is to create a new society in which the workers shall not be subordinated to the power of any selfish monopoly or vested interest.” This, of course, is all very fine and large, so far as it goes, but Mr. Thorn, while extolling the virtues of his party, gives not the slightest indication of how his millennium is to be brought about. This is not fair to the “materialist civilisation” he so roundly denounces and leaves the beneficent employer still wondering what he should do next.