The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DEC. 3, 1906.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1948, 3 December 1906, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, DEC. 3, 1906.

Seemingly the band of political workers known as the Liberal and Labor Federation are going to take a very prominent part in the Land Bill campaign, and for that reason it is as well that everyone should know the real history and importance of that august body with a pretentious name. The roal importance of the thing is very easy to gauge, but tho history is not so easily obtained unless one gets within tho inner circle of political intrigue which has not yet expanded its limits far beyond the boundaries of Greater Wellington. There is a possibility that had tho history of this scheme been confined to legitimate political purposes the organisation would have flourished and become a power in the land, and the history would not have become known to outsiders ; but the fact that its original membership was largely made up of people who had axes to grind or wanted billets, and that some of them were disappointed, made it easy for the historian to collate his facts and to place them before the public with full confidence in their accuracy. Usually public movements that result in organisation of people for a common purpose have a spontaneous origin and a common cause ; but tho one under notice cannot boast of any such advan' tage, which possibly accounts for the fact that to*-day the Liberal and Labor Federation (so-called) has fewer members than when it was first launched some nine or ten years ago. Its conception and control was the work of one man whose name need not be given here, and its membership then was almost exclusively made up of ladies and gentlemen who year.iGd to assist the colony on to fnjtur-a and contentment with tho full belief that that happy stage could never be reached until either themselves, their sisters, cousins, or aunts were permitted to take an active pait in the legislative, clerical, or other departments of State at remunerative aala-

rios. lu tho city of Wellington that membership then numbered close upon two hundrod full-grown adults of both tioxes; but that number has since dwindled to about twenty-live oxolu«ivo of ollice-boarors, for the reason that fastor than mombers woro added oldor ones woro tronsfoi-od to tho biggest woodon building in tho world to help on tho prospoiity of tho colony. A. couplo woro olovatod to the Legislative Council and they still return timir membership actively, while of those that remain some are ,J e dices of the l.’oaco or havo expectations. Outsido of tho Empire City tiro plan has not “ caught on ” to any extent, and it is a fact that in Dunoilin a public mooting was callod to prosont tho local branch with its chartor, whereat tho Promier of tiro day was announced to speak and malco tho presentation, and the only genuine mombers of tho branch prosont woro two members of the Legislative Council and the paid organiser. Yet the function wont on with a big flourish of trumpets and a big spooch to a big audionce who took advantage of the free show and never intended to become mombors. Mention of the wild organiser brings to mind the fact that no one but the President ever knew how much m)!a;y ho got or whence it came, uud his appointment was never made by the organisation itself. Unkind people have said tnat, h ; s salary and fcravelbng expenses were voted by Paroameut oncer another ’.-.am-*, bus that ira'o rao-.'-e-H .. 0! • m Anyway, bmust havo earned his s;;la>y, tor tho poor mau died in office —battling for the Liberal cause as or hors have d-m* ;

and ■-•,’() b'.vo never hn-sft of a post- I humous gratuity having boon granted I to bis family, id is successor broke down in health, too, after a eoupio of yours’ arduous labor in trying to keep tho federation olive, but ho met with more liberal treatment, so that the name was at last justified, for ho was transferred to Napier as Inspector of Factories so that he could recuperate at the public expense. In a few scattered places there are a few branches of the great federation, each branch consisting of not generally more than half a dozen persons, and more commonly of a president and a secretary. The main duty of the branches is to attend to the social side of politics and never mies a chance of getting up a banquet to a Minister or a member of the Houso of Representatives of the right color oven though those gentlomon had to pay the expense out of their own pockets, to keop tho central officer fully informed of any renegade movements on the part of anyone who dared to think for himself politically, and to be always ready to propose votes of confidence in the Government whenever and wherever they could be squeezed in. For these services the president or secretary of a branch was granted precedence of all other people except the Governor in gaining audience with the Premier, and as everyone knows that is a high honor, for this precedence question has become an important thing under modern Liberalism. Though the word Labor is given prominence in the name of tho combination, it is really not meant to give offence to the Trades and Labor Councils, tho Independent Labor League, or other labor organisations who will not ally themselves with the movement, and who are not ambitious to become J.P.s, but rather as a conciliatory idea and to show that while assuming precedence in all political functions, the votes of labor are not despised in the hour of need. The members of this great federation have no quarrel with labor if they can avoid it, nor do they hanker much after land on any tenure, for land and labor are inseparable unless both are left idle, yet they find it a pleasant thing to ho able to dictate to others and afford them the benefit of their sage advice as to how land should be treated, while they keep an eye on the public exchequer as a federation to see that too much is not spent in rural areas while there are people waiting for Government billets who • could handle the money more readily.