DEATH OF ENGLISH LABOUR MINISTER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 62, 14 March 1931, Page 1

DEATH OF ENGLISH LABOUR MINISTER.

WAS LORD PRIVY SEAL IN MACDONALD CABINET. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Received March 14, 9 a.m.) LONDON, March 13. death is announced of the Rt *lon Vernon Hartshorn, Labour memner for the Ogmore < Division of Glamorganshire. Mr Hartshorn, president of the South Wales Miners, and a member of the executive of the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain, was the chief statistical authority of the mining industry in the federation. A man of much shrewdness, fie possessed the mathematical brain, and when the wage movements took place in the South Wales coal industry in 1923 he astonished ali his colleagues with the accuracy of his forecasts. A native of Monmouth, Mr Hartshorn worked at the coal face as a miner, in a colliery office as clerk, as

a colliery checkweigher, and as a miners’ agent. The Maestek district, of which he was agent, is acknowledged to be one of the best organised in the South Wales coalfield. One of the most aggressive of the South Wales leaders, Vernon Hartshorn differed from his colleagues on the mater of tactics in the 1921 dispute, and after seeing the fight through to a finish, he resigned his position on the South Wales and the National Executive. Later in the year, on the death of Mr James Winstone in a London nursing home, Mr Hartshorn was elected president of the South Wales Federation, and. again became a member of the National Executive. Throughout the life of the present wage agreement he was one ot its most pronounced opponents. In the war years he served on the Coal Advisory Committee and on the Coal Trade Organisation Committee, and received the 0.8. E. in recognition of his services.

He was first elected an M.P. in 1918. and it is claimed that it was he who killed the Government’s Coal Profits Bill. V ith an intimate knowledge of the coal industry he combined a knack ot presenting facts and figures. His speech on the Coal Mining (Reorganisation* Bill in 1926. when he urged a round-table conference, was described by an opponent as “the speech of a statesman.” In the Labour Government he had a seat in the Cabinet as Postmaster-General. Mr Hartshorn, who took an interest in Indian affairs, was appointed a member of the Simon ( ommission following the death of Mr Stephen Walsh. M.P.. in December, 1927. He. was a member of various committees of the Simon Indian Commission. He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council in 1924 and in June last succeeded Mr J. 11. Thomas as Lord Privy Seal.