PARTY BRUSH

Timaru Herald, Volume CLI, Issue 22203, 21 February 1942, Page 4

PARTY BRUSH

Member Sticks To His Opinion RESIGNATION TENDERED (P.A.) HAMILTON, February 20. After a demand by the National Executive of the New Zealand Labour Party for an explanation of remarks made by him at a meeting of the Hamilton Borough Council. Mr Charles Lafferty, a member of the council, and vice-president of the Hamilton branch of the Labour Party, has resigned from the party. The remarks to which the national executive took exception were made by Mr Lafferty during a Borough Council discussion on the right of council employees to overtime for trench digging on Saturdays. On that occasion he attacked the secretary of the Auckland Labourers’ Union for his attitude in demanding overtime. Remarks underlined by the national secretary of the Labour Party, Mr M. Moohan, in a letter to Mr Lafferty, were; “The time is coming when a Government will have to be elected that will represent the whole of the people and not just one section.” In his reply Mr Lafferty stated that his remarks as published were true in every detail and he was standing by them more firmly than ever. He expressed his disagreement with the Labour Party’s refusal to form a Coalition Government and continued. “We are fighting a war for democracy and free speech. Your executive appears to take the role of dictator." Mr Lafferty concluded by saying that after careful consideration of the whole matter he had decided to Tender his resignation as a member of the parly.