The Liberal Association in a Trap.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 822, 29 September 1894, Page 2

The Liberal Association in a Trap.

The artful schemers who are manoeuvring so quietly just now to deprive the Liberal party in Auckland of its political power and make it subservient to the designs of the Labour organizations are reckoning without their host. The Liberal party at this end of the colony may be discouraged and disorganised, it may be sleepy and indolent, but the people who compose it were not born yesterday. They have cut their eye teeth, and the scheming Trades Unionist who thinks he can use them like so many sheep to further his own selfish ends makes a very considerable mistake.

And yet it is^juite evident he does think so. I see that the Trades and Labour Council approved the other night of the constitution of the Central Council of

Labour and Liberal Political Organization. I quite believe the Trades and Labour Council would approve of it. Let us examine this new organization for ourselves and see how it is constituted. The Knights of Labour appoint six delegates, the Workers' Political Reform League six delegates, and the Trades and Labour Council six delegates. These are three Labour societies directly representing some hundreds of members, and they are to exercise eighteen voies in deciding any matter in which there is a conflict between Trades Unionism and Liberalism.

On the other hand, the Liberal Association, which represents the most powerful political party in the Colony at the present time, is allowed six votes against the eighteen held by Labour. It is preposterous, but nevertheless such is the basis of this cunningly - devised Central Council of Labour and Liberalism. Let me put it another way. The Liberals of Auckland are as a hundred to one compared with the aggregate membership of these societies, and yet the Liberal party on this great Council are to have one vote in four. In a word, Liberalism is, for the future, to be made a tool for the accomplishment of Trades Union or so-called Labour designs. Don't you believe it. . The Liberals of Auckland are no fools, and they are not going to be led by the jiose by one or two cunning and interested individuals who have betrayed them in this way for the furtherance of their own ends.

But who is responsible for leading the Liberal Association into this trap? We ought to know. Let the members bestir themselves and ascertain why this unholy alliance and what its purpose. I have again and again pointed out that there is nothing in common between Liberalism and Trades Unionism. One party insists upon equal rights to all, and the other demands exclusive rights for its own members. Sir George Grey made this point clear over and over again in his Liberal addresses. Then, why has this attempt been made to tie the two associations together ? and why, in the negotiations, have the officers of the Liberal Association allowed the party which they claim to represent to be bound down hand and foot as the slave of the Labour bodies ? But it will not do. Either the Liberal Association must withdraw from this Council and maintain that iudependent attitude that the strength of its party entitles it to preserve, or it must be kicked out of the world of Liberalism as a dirty and dishonest thing that is unfaithful to its principles and prepared to betray its party without scruple or shame.