A NEW POLITICAL PARTY

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 44, 17 July 1909, Page 2

A NEW POLITICAL PARTY

Labour-Socialist Aspirations

IT is clear from the recent utterances of the present Socialistic

heads of the Auckland Trade's and Labour Council that they have in view the distinct aim of forming a separate Socialist-Labour party in New Zealand politics. The declarations of their two principal officials to a " Star " interviewer put the matter beyond doubt. Here, for instance, are the sentiments of Mr Long, President of the ' Council : ' ' The sooner the workers of this State decide to form a united Labour party, and put their own Labour members into the House, the sooner will they get the legislation they require. Certain it is that they have never had a more opportune time in the history of this country's politics than the present for the formation of such a party." Mr L. Henry, a vice-president, is equally emphatic : " The only way we can achieve success is to become red hot gospellers of politics in labour. At the present time the political muddle New Zealand is in places the ball at our feet if we want to kick it, and the time was never more opportune for the establishment of a strong political labour party in New Zealand."

Evidently, then, the Socialist Party — for it distinotly enough avows its Socialistic purpose — judges from the reduced strength of the Liberal Party at the last elections that the swing of the political pendulum is pending in New Zealand. Therefore it decides that it can look to that party for no further concessions in the extension of Socialism. For that reason, it considers that its best policy is to leave the Liberals to their own resources, and strike out on its own aeoount. In other words, gratitude for assistance in the past forms no part of the Labour-Socialist character. The party which has given to New Zealand labour all that it has gained in the last eighteen years is to be left to sink or swim, directly the Liberal-Socialists conclude that it has no further usefulness to their own cause. Labour voters are to be asked to abandon it to its fate, and support the creation of a distinct Labour Party, aiming at

a Socialistic programme that would far outdo the moderate Socialism which New Zealand has so far taken as its watchword.

This avowal of the tactics of the extreme Labour Party is about the best thing that oould have happened for the interests of true Liberalism in New Zealand. It is quite time that the real Liberal party, which seeks for equality of opportunity to all, was separated from the Labour incubus that has burdened it for years past, and whose one object in politics is to secure special treatment for a particular class. To the absorption of the Labour party by John Ballance in his Liberal organisation of 1891 the labour cause owes the enormous advantages it haa reaped since then in the way of special legislation. Can anyone suppose that if the Labour party of that day had stood alon© in the fight for factory legislation, and the establishment of industrial courts, it would have had any chance of carrying the day against the then existing political organisations ? Still less would such Socialistic institutions as State workmen's dwellings, State ooal mines, and State fire insurance, not to mention others, have come .into being if the Labour faction had had to strive for them unaided. In recent years, however, the Labour section of the Liberal party have been allowed to influence the Government policy to an extent out of all proportion to the Labour strength and influence. If Labour itself effects a divorce the Liberals proper will be free to shape their own course, and it is not difficult to see which section of the party will lose most heavily by the change.

it is, however, hardly conceivable that the more sensible working men of New Zealand will follow the lead of the Socialistic agitators, now that their purpose is so plainly disclosed. Now, as in the past, the extremist will be more conspicuous for his noise than for his influence at elections. If, however, the unexpected should happen, and the Labour-Socialists, separating themselves from the Liberal party, form an independent fighting power, there is only one possible result. That result will be to hasten an alliance which has been looming for some time as a possibilty, between the Liberal kernel of the present Government party, and the less conservative section of the Opposition. The last state of the Socialists will then be much worse than the present. From their own point of view they have everything to gain from the Labour alliance with the Liberal party, and everything to lose by cutting the painter. And the Dominion politics as a whole will benefit by the severance.