MR. JAMES THORN, M.P.

Chronicle (Levin), 11 October 1946, Page 4

MR. JAMES THORN, M.P.

LABOUR CANDIDATE FOR OTAKI NOTES ON HIS CAREER Mr. James* Thorn, for the past eleven years M.P. for Thames and , nOw the Labour Party candidate ! ■f-or . Otaki, was born in Christ- ! church, where he was educated at 5 the W:est Christchurch and Boys' ; High S&hools. . At the age of 17 he enlisted as a trUmpeter in the Third N.Z-. Conti'ngent in the South African War, and holds a medal with five bars as the result of his service. He is a member of the Thames branch of ; the R.S.A. On his return from the war he joined the railway service in the Addington Railway Work•shops, and at once became a mem- • ber of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants and shortly after •was appointed to the secretaryship o'f the Metal Workers' Assistants' Union. As this union 's representative on the Christchurch Trades and Labour Council, he soon after was -elected as the council's assist-ant-secretary, and in 1903 and 1904 worked in the first attempt to found a Labour Party in New Zealand. v In 1905 Mr. Thorn stood as a Labour • candidate for Christchurch South, and wa'S 'the first Labour candidate ever to stand in the history ' of "Christchurch. Mr. Thorn polled 1150 of the 3300 yotes cast for the nine Labour candidates who contested the 1905 general election§. In 1908 he again contested the same constituency. In 1909 Mr. Thorn v'isited Great Britain, where for four years he worked first on Robert Blatchford's famous paper, The Clarion, in Londoh, aild afterwards on the Scottish Labour Party newspaper, The Forward, in Glasgow. Returning t-o

New Zbaiand' in 1913, he in the 1914 'general electibnS' : was selected as the LaboUr Party candidate for Palmerston North. Again he was the first Labour candidate in that constituency. In 1916 he was appointed sub-editor of The Maoriland Wbrker" under the editorship of the late Mr. H. E. Holland. When Mr. Holland was elected to Parliament, Mr. Thorn was made the editor of the paper, which position he held for nearly twelve years. He was the first editor of The Standard. At the 1931 general elections Mr. Thorn was the Labour candidate for Otaki. He polled over 3500 votes. He was national president of the Labour Party for two years, and between 1931 and 1935 was the party 's national secreta-ry. In 1935 Mr. Thorn was elected Labour M.P. for Thames, was re-elected in 1933 and again in 1943. During his membership of the House of Representatives Mr. Thorn was- appointed chairman of . •tfte. : •i-Sea'-fisheries ' . Investigation ■ •Comrnittee 1937-38., and cohducted the most thorough inquiry into this industry in its history. In 1938 he led the New Zealand delegation at the Intemational Labour Office Conference at Geneva. Recently he was elected chairman of the Parliamentary Select Comrnittee on Population. Mr. Thom is a member of the Public Accounts Comrnittee of the House, of the Maori Affairs Comrnittee and is ehairman of the Goldfield and Mines Comrnittee. For the past two yfars he has been Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Prime Minister.