LABOR PARTY.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 October 1918, Page 1

LABOR PARTY.

MR J. PAYNE’S COMMENT ANT)

ADVICE

A LIVELY MEETING

Auckland, October 28

The Labour meetings which are held in Auckland on Sunday evenings as a rule are of a, most harmonious nature. A change, however, came >ver the scene last evening, when Mr John Payne, M.P. took the platform and indulged in some free criticism of Messrs Holland and Fraser, M.P. s, both of whom have previously addressed similar Sunday meetings here. There was a large attendance, and from start to finish the speaker was subjected lo considerable inferruption. Mr Payne, whoso subject was, “ Could a Moderate Labour PartyWin Out at the Coming Elections ?” iaid he was conducting’ the meeting without a chairman because some of bis remarks would be unorthodox, md he did not wish to place the chairman in any invidious position, He asked, “Is is possible for the Labour Party to win out ?”

Cries of “ Certainly." Mr Payne : Well, I wish l could agree with yon. It is no use being blinded by party enthusiasm, and as the party is at present constituted it will never win out.

Cries of “ Oh, oh,” and “Why?” were followed by such an uproar thatthe speaker had to appeal for a bearing.

Then Mr Payne proceeded to give his reasons why he considered the present Labour Party was at fault. He said that before the Labour Party could obtain a majority it must have the tanners with it, but while it ran the farmer down it could not gain his confidence. He declared that, the farmer was not (he real profiteer—the middleman was the profiteer, as the farmer now received very little more for his products than lie did before the war. Mr Payne said he had been looking for a long time for that great working class movement they had heard so much about, but which had no existence in fact. It had never returned a member to the House or to the City Council. “ You say there is such a movement. Where is it ?” he asked.

Voices: So there is. Why don’t you organise it ? There were further interruptions in the course of which Mr Payne was understood to say that the attitude of some of the Labour Party’s speakers had led the public to believe that they agreed with Bolshevism. (Howls and genet al uproar). He said if a decent Labour Party was in siglir, the country would be swept clear of the National Government. Oneieason why the Labour Party would not succeed was its attitude towards the war. While some of its speakers enunciated pro-German sentiments, it would never make headway in this country. “ The Labour Party must realise what we are up against,” said Mr Payne. “ Those who by their utterances show that at heart they are pro-Germans Dir Payne was here interrupted by hoots and cries of “Turn it up, John,” and “Win the war,” while in one part of the theatre some of the audience proceeded to count the speaker out, Dir Payne : “ What I was going to say was that those who talk of peace at the present time are pro-German at heart. Anyone who can read of the Hun atrocities and not want to see the Germans wiped off the face of the earth has no regard for humanity.” (Interruption.) He asked if there was a single Labour leader, in sight “ capable of juggling with the country’s millions.” (Cries of “ Yes,” “ Holland,” and other names which in the uproar were inaudible.) Dir Payne said that no Labour Party could make a success of Parliament; it must decide that Parliament must be remodelled on democratic lines. He deprecated the Protestant Political Association movement as causing sectarian bitterness. The speaker was saying that ho would like to see the Labour Patty deal with the question of education on broader 1i: es when he was asked: “Why don’t you join the Labour Party ? ” Dir Payne: Do you want to put me under the thumb of Holland and Fraser and the rest of them ? A Voice: No.

Dir Payne: Well, 1 can’t join the Labour Party while pro-German elements are in it. (Uproar.) “To be a success,” continued Mr Payne, “ the party required business men, and it would never get business men to put themselves under the thumbs of Messrs Fraser and Holland, who would be bigger autocrats than the Tsar if they had their way.” Being interrupted by a man near the front. Dir Payne allowed him to take the platform for a few minutes. The man said the only way to stop exploitation wrs for the workers io educate themselves so as to know when they were being exploited. Dir Payne (sarcastically): That settles the question, Only educate the worker and Massey and Ward are out! That’s pure nonsense. Dir R. F. Way, a menib- r of the Labour Partv, ‘urged those present not to be misled by Dir Payne, and asked : “ Who is Dir Payne compared with the Labour movement in New Zealand ? What policy has he put forward?” (Cheers.) DLr Way objected to the speaker’s insinuations that the Labour Party was proGerman, and said it was not proanything. but was international.

Mr Payne had started to answer further questions when the caretaker said time was up, and the meeting dispers.-d.