LABOUR PARTY'S ATTITUDE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1366, 17 February 1912, Page 9

LABOUR PARTY'S ATTITUDE.

Sir,—There are gomo whisperings at the present time that influences are at work, whether by the New Zealand Labour party or not I cannot say, in the direction of getting tho bulk of the Labour M.P.'s to support tho Ward Government and save them from defeat. Such a position if truo can hardly be conceived from a Labour standpoint, even if wo were to . admit of all the good that the Ward Government have done in the past, entirely omitting any of their gross errors in administrating the aifairs of tho country. It has also be-en said that a Jlassey Government would comprise some ultra-Con-servatives who are landholders. It is not, 6ir, to the personnel of a Government that Labour has to look at the present time. It is measures, not men! The country has spoken in no unequivocal way, that there must be a change, and the only hope for Labour is that change at once. , 1 am sure that the member for Grey Lynn cannot do other than vote against tho Government because ho was elected in the place of the Government candidate, the Hon. Geo. Fowlds. In regard to the other three members of the Labour party, to be of any service whatever they must vote against the Government anil use pressure upon the Massey Government in return for their support as tho only means by which they can be of any utility in making themselves felt as a Labour parly, and this was practically the position that the Labour party adopted in Australia when sitting on the cross benches. Their watchword must be during the life of this Parliament: "Concessions, concessions," and thoso concessions must naturally be obtained from the party in power that has tho bulk of the people behind them. I repeat the country has spoken in no uncertain manner, and has declared in the most emphatic way that Sir Joseph Ward, after a long trial which has practically exasperated tho people to boiling point, has proved himself, amidst the most glorious possibilities of being of great service to the democracy of New Zealand, to be nothing short of an incompetent political figurehead of an incompetent Administration. And to think for one moment—to entertain such an outrageous thought at the present time—that thero could be the slightest sympathy or quarter given by tho Labour party to a Government that has lost the hold on the affections and respect of the people of this country, is to hold a thought that would surprise even, I should say, Sir Joseph himself. Tho defeat of Sir John Findlay, Hon. Goorge Fowlds, the close contests of the Prime Minister and the Hon. Mr. M'Kenzie, as well as tho Government candidates, and the great increase in the forces of the Opposition, I am sure are events of such import, that I cannot, I will not, believe that any body of public men calling themselves Labour men or even democrats would dare to so flout or defeat the will of the people by in any way condoning the faults and defects of a discredited and practically defeated Government, that is holding on to office with a tenacity and audacity that is unprecedented in the history of modern politics, much le.is in a country that boasts of being thu pioneers of democracy under the Southern Cross.

Let me utter timely warning if rumour bo true, that in tlio event of a coalition of Labour with the Ward Government, a spirit of unrest which -rill be tantamount to a spirit of absolute revolt will take possession of the people, and when Demos acts it will be with the strongest measure o£ severity, coupled with intense indignation against those men who would dare to triflo with the peopled expressed and definite voioe, that there must be a change in the conduct and complexion of the ruling power.—l am, etc., LABOURITE.