MR. WILL CROOKS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 676, 29 November 1909, Page 8

MR. WILL CROOKS.

SUNDAY EVENING SPEECHES. LABOUR PAETI AND POPLAK. Mr. Will. Crooks's only Sunday evening in Wellington was a strenuous time. After speaking eloquently on "Labour . and Christianity' to a; large, congregation at . the Vivian Sweet Church ,(lor Mr. Crooks is himself an active member of the Baptist body); he went along t<j the Opera House, where a crowded audience was waiting to hear him. Mr. D. M. M'Laren, M.P., presided, and on tho platform with him were several members of Parliament, local Labour leaders, and others. ',

Mr. Crooks,' who was received with enthusiasm, kept the "house" in the best of humour with him, and itself for an hour and twenty minutes, with a racy .speech on the British Labour party, and the problems of poverty in the Old Country. After enlarging upon the futility of .repeated petitions to Parliament and deputations to Ministers,. Mr.Crooks came on to the time when Labour made up its mind to'send "petitions in boots, not on parchment," and showed how,,that,re-, solve lea to,the return of Messrs. Keif Hardie, David Shackkton, Arthur Henderson (the present leader of .the Labour party)', and himself. The troublous; passage of the Trades Disputes Act, : ; after the Labour party .in the House had increased to 33 members, was described with realistio and amusing mimicry ,'" of 0p.,ponents,' and then came the Miners' . Eight Honrs Act—'fit took eight hours and a half to work it out, a wonderful- Bill".' The trials of the unemployed, were pictured, and incidents from-the speaker's'own observation 1 , served to show what heroism starving men, and women can rise to. The passage of the Unemployed Bill against the ' delays of a House tnat would . willingly adjourn to watch the. Eton and Harrow cricket match while women and children were starving, was attributed to. the persistency of the Labour members. The speaker went on' to . heap , scorn upon, those who disputed about the teaching' of religion in the schools and allowed; the children to. starve, and • told how the . Labour party forced the House to pass,'the measure which, in. its first; form permitted, and afterwards obliged local; authorities' to feed- any school children who needed it. The Workers Compensation Act ..was dealt- with; and Mr. - Crooks' then, went on to speak of life administration as .chairman of the Poplar-Board;of Guardians of the' Poor. In some "districts of London, the poor had to keep the'poorj'and'iin others, the rich dodged, the poor,. but liyed on the, dividends created by the toilers in the poor, districts. He had, been told it- ; was; not- his'business -to" redress'.social inequalities! but he' replied that :it "was, and that, that was what Parliaments and' Boards of Guardians were for—and whkt Christ died for. Even here -in Now' Zealand' they had heard about the Poplar • inquiry ■ and the graft that Will Crooks was suppoeed : to have got._ He couldnt find it' anywhere, but perhaps it" was somewhere'about.tne House. (Laughter.) -They did not-make, the paupers,, but: it was their duty, to relieve distress, and they could not do. it Ivithoilt money:. The rates hid.to' be-'raised;' but what' made ' them . so. high,;., ascompared with'.other districts,'was .the low'assessmerit'of Poplar -and- the- amount' of poverty..'there. .Ha i ;warned his hearers against placing! too .milch confidence in-;cablegrams which were designed to traduce; and denounce Lkbour all theworld. over.-. In spite of the troubles at Poplar; .assessment rose .£5001) last year. ' • ' :, The speech was followed by prolonged -■ applause, find ;a suggestion by tho chairTTKm that a,message' of goodwill should be sent to the British Labour party wais heartily acclaimed.,