A MESSAGE OF DELIVEIUNCE.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 November 1919, Page 4

A MESSAGE OF DELIVEIUNCE.

(Otago Daily Times.) ' Mr J. T; Paul, the Preisdent of the New Zealand Labour party, reoeived a sympahtetic hearing last night from a meeting of electors of Dunedin South before whom he presented himself as a candidate for their suff- , rages. The dull atmosphere' of the Legislative Council, Avhicli he has someLoav managed to endure for the tAA'elve or thirteen years of his political life, has become so oppressive to him of late that it is Avillingly, ho says, that hie resigns his membership, of that ■Chamber. In particular although Ills .claims to be regarded as a financial expert must be held as yet to someAvhat shadowy, he seems to be yearning for , the opportunity of giving the country the benefit of his opinion on questions iof finance, to Avhich, as he truly says, , increased attention must he given and upon which the Legislative Council has no voice. Wo should have supposed . that a consideration that would even more potently have influenced him to . forsake the seat in the Upper House | tAviee accepted by him upon the nomination of Governments representative of j parties Avhich have, he has discovered, j now lost their virility, is that the Labour party condemns the Second Chamber as a superfluous institution. ! Now, however, that Mr Paul is uu- ■ muzzled, he brings to the electors “a j 'message of deliverance” —of deliverance “from the old political shams and the difficulties and problems Avhich have perplexed the country for many years.” ( The (Reform and Liberal parties are both tarred by him with the same brush. Both are effete, and it is for “the protection of the interests of the country” that, Mr Paul urges the people should now give a. trial to the Labour party. He does not actually mean that the Labour party shouid be installed in power. He recognises—he must recognise—that there is not the remotest possibility of the Labour party of five in the expiring House of Representatives being enlarged in the new Parliament to a party so numerous as to he able to claim the responsibilities of office. The aim of the Labour party is to secure, if possible, the election of sufficient of its nominees to enable them to hold the bdlance of poAver in the Hpusee, to put them in such a position that they can make and unmake Ministries until they find one that will submit to dictation from them a-s the price of office. So much wax admitted by Mr Paul himself in a recent speech at Christchurch. But betiveen placing a Labour Government in poiver and returning a Lfibour party to Parliament in strength sufficient to admit of its exercising an effective control over any Government that would be amenable to its influence the difference is so slight as to he hardly worth consideration. And it will become necessary for the electors before 1 they record their votes, to examine the/ credentials of the Labour party' and of tke candidates aa t lio are standing on behalf of th e Labour party in order that they may decide whether the party is one Avhich may he safely entrusted with the poAver Avhich it hopes to iviekl in the neiv Parliament.

\Mr Paul has asked/ that lib should he tested by his personal record. The record of the Labour party is the test. AA'liich every elector should apply to it. And there is no test that can he more fittingly applied to it than its record during the years of Avar. Mr Paul drew soniG encouragement last,, night from the increased support AA'liich the Labour Party had received in constituencies of Great Britain. But he seems to have omitted to mention the fact that the Independent Labour party completely lost itsi representation in the House of Commons as the result of the general election last year. And it was. with the policy of the Independent Labour party—the party in which Mr Ramsay Macdonald and Mr Snoivden were the shining lights—that the New Zealand Labour party identified itself. The Labour members at Home avlio fought against national Service at a time when every physically fit man was required in the army, in order that the nation and the Empire might preserve their security and who associated themselves with the proposal to seek a peace by negotiation at a time when peace' meant the defeat of the Allies were, one and all, contemptuously rejected by the British electors at the polls. The NeAV Zealand Labour party declined to accept a share in the control of the affairs of the country by a National Government during the AV'ar. It opposed compulsory service,-to the extent of its meagre ability in the dominion, and not only in the dominion but also in Australia. It championed the bhirkers, ■to - whose number it supplied one of its oAvn parliamentary rethe height of the Avar, in favour of a peace hv negotiation. Mr Paul himself committed himself to the statement that organised Labour throughout the world should do its utmsot.to open up: negotiations for peace. In all this, it repudiated the loyal and patriotic stand which was to its lasting credit, taken up by a great bitlk ,of the. Labour party at Home. And, finally, when the war was over, it placed on record its “unqualified condemnation”, of the Peace l’reaty. This is a record which supplies the just test of the validity of the claims of the Labour party .and of its candidates to the support of the public. It is. a record which, recent though it is, lie mav wish the electors to forget. But there are scores of thousands of them .throughout the dominion who have their domestic reasons for remembering it to tlreir sorrow. And, when it is remembered, it must he held to he a piece of sublime assurance on the part of the Labour party to invite the, public for an expression of confidence in.it..as. the party best : qualifiod to “protect the interests of the country.”