The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1935 LABOUR IN OFFICE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20284, 6 December 1935, Page 10

The Timaru Herald FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1935 LABOUR IN OFFICE.

It must have been a proud moment for the stalwarts of the New Zealand Labour Party when the Governor-General, as representative of the King, handed to Mr Savage, as Leader of Labour, the charter of parliamentary authority entitling the representatives of the Party to assume the reins of office. For something like twenty-seven years the New Zealand Labour Party hds had to be satisfied to discharge its Parliamentary function in the cool shades of Opposition. But the stalwarts never faltered. They kept the goal in sight. Year by year the Parliamentary strength of the Party increased. From a solitary member in 1908, to the almost overwhelming representation of 56 to 57 members, who will sit behind and around Mr Savage on the Government benches of the new House of Representatives, Labour in Parliament lias steadily increased in strength. But if the members of the Labour Party have impressed the country by the way they have consistently played the part of critics of the Government of the day and the existing policy, the almost dramatic changes in political fortunes, have also changed the place of Labour in the the nation. To-day, in Parliamentary arena, will be found no plr.cS for the fiery oratory of tlie vigorous champions withal 'Labour’s ranks, of the excuse of the people. Between ten and eleven o’clock. yesterday morning, the place of Labour in Parliament underwent a complete change. To-day Labour sits in the seats of authority, and the pronouncements of His Majesty’s Ministers must be garmented in dignified restraint and reasonableness. But Mr Savage has already shown that he realises the immense responsibilities now imposed upon him %s Prime Minister and upon liis colleagues as members of the Cabinet. The complete change of angle from which the Labour Party must approach the vital and pressing problems of the day will furnish the acid test of the qualities of the members of the new Labour Cabinet. Mr Savage, on his part, has selected a team from the thoroughly seasoned and welltried members of the Labour Party; men who have shared the burden and heat of the days in the long and sometimes bitter years of strenuous work that has been entailed in building up the Parliamentary strength of the Labour Party and then leading Labour to victory at the polls. Several members of the new Cabinet have to their credit considerable experience in local government administration, as well as years of Parliamentary experience on the Opposition side of the House of Representatives where their training has been searching and exacting. At the moment it is not necessary to particularise on the merits of the individual members of the new Ministry, suffice it to say, that Mr Savage, being fully alert to the heavy responsibility his Party has accepted, and the enormity of the task that will fall upon the shoulders of the new Administration, has taken due pains in selecting a well-balanced team which ought to do well, if all members of the new Cabinet eschew sectional.interests and put first things first.