The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1914.

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 225, 18 March 1914, Page 17

The White Ribbon. For God and Home and Humanity. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1914.

Every Convention teaches its lesson to White Ribboners, and the Gisborne Contention was not the exception to prove the rub*. To every member of that gathering was brought home the fact that they must not only read, but also mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Constitution of the N.Z. \\ C’.T.t and the direct in ns issued to Unions through the “White Kibhon.” There was great confusion in the minds of many as to the difference between a delegate and a proxy. Now’ a delegate must he a member of the Union she wishes to represent. As such she may claim to know tin* mind of her Union upon the matters that come up for discussion. and can he left a free hand to vote if her Union likes to do so. lint when a Union cannot send a delegate, the\ may apply to the R<*oording S.eretarv for a proxy, hut the constitution says: “No proxy can lie appointed for anv Union which does not send

instructions how to vote for N.Z. officers and for any amendments to the Constitution.” The following Unions sent no instructions on these matters for their proxies : —Taieatua, W arkworth, Otahulm, Papakuru, Norsewol d, Port Chalmers; and the following Unions sent incomplete instructions: W’annate. Xgaruawahia, Dunedin South, Sheffield, N.E. \ alley, Greymouth, and IVtone. These Unions had only themselves to blame, because in the January number of the “White Ribbon” the Recording S«*c rotary wrote asking all Inions who wanted a proxy to send soak'd instrueti< ns to her on these jK>ints, and s|>eciilly naming the two amendments to the Constitution, of which notice of motion had l**eii given at last Convention. Another fact commented on by our President was that never before had so many delegates and proxies left beferc the end of Convention. Several proxies acting tor l nions who had sent full instructions, left before the election of N.Z. officers and so disfranchised the Unions which had sent them directions how to vote for such officers. Another thing we net iced with deep sadness was the struggle of delegates to lx* loyal to the Unions who had bound them to vote in a manner against their own convictions, after hearing the discussion. Of seven members voting against Miss Henderson's amendment, several said they only did so because they were b und by the will of the Union sending them. One delegate put the position in a nutshell: “I’ll never come bound to a Convention again. If my I’nion can’t trust me to vote right alter hearing a full discussion. I’ll not represent them again.”