THAMES LABOUR PARTY

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXX, Issue 8497, 3 August 1933, Page 2

THAMES LABOUR PARTY

CANDIDATE CHOSEN FOR NEXT ELECTION MR J. THORN TO STAND Some months ago the decision of the Thames Labour Representation Committee to nominate a candidate for the Thames electorate was announced in the press, and Mr J. S. Montgomerie, who was narrowly defeated as the Labour candidate for the constituency at the 1931 elections, was again approached, but for several personal and business reasons he found it impossible to accept nomination. Last week-end, meeting in Paeroa, the Labour Representation Committee, with delegates in attendance from all parts of the electorate, unanimoustly invited Mr James Thorn to accept the candidature. MiThorn has now consented to do so.

Mr Thorn is at present the national secretary of the New Zealand Laboui Party, having succeeded Mr Walter Nash, M.P., in that office eighteen months ago. He has had a long connection with the Labour movement, in all its branches, is one of the foundation members of the New Zealand Labour Party, and was the first Labour candidate in Christchurch, having fought the Christchurch South seat in 1905 and also in 1908. For several years Mr Thorn worked in the Labour movement in Great Britain and as a speaker and writer associated with Robert Blatchford’s well-known paper The Clarion, and for three years of this period he was employed as a speaker and journalist by Jhp Labour press in Scotland.

Prior to his recent election to the national secretaryship of the Labour Party, Mr Thorn was for twelve years the editor of “The New Zealand Worker,” and he has held practically every important office in New Zealand’s industrial and political Labour movement. At the 1931 election he contested Otaki and polled 3550 votes. He is a New Zealander, being born in Christchurch in 1882, and was educated in the West Christchurch and Boys’ High Schools. At present Mr Thorn is engaged in a live weeks’ speaking tour throughout the Thames electorate.