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Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1928, Page 4

The situation in regard to events on the Australian waterside, the strike and tbe aftermath, surely has some significant lessons for New Zealand. It is often thought and said that between Labour militancy in Australia and Labour militancy in New Zealand, there is a very large difference. In Australia, certainly, tbe extreme Reds not only have a larger influence than they have bore, but are very much more courageous and eager for action. But in essentials there is no difference between the Australian and New Zealand Labour Parties, and everyone whose memory is not extraordinarily short, says tbe Press, can recall many occasions upon which the leaders of New Zealand Labour showed that they had nothing to learn,from men like Mr Jock Garden. The strike in Australia was a misfortune for the Labour Party.

It was brought on mainly by the determination. of the lleddist section of the Party to declare its supremacy over the less violent or more prudent section which shrinks from, sudden frontal attacks when the time is not suitable for them. Had it not been that the Federal election was pending there would have been no serious conflict between the two sections of Labour, and it is with perfect justice that the supporters of the extremist leaders complain that the ending of the striko meant that they had been sacrificed to the political necessities of the Labour Party. Tn the Dominion we have had a spell of industrial peace, mainly because the economic conditions made even the excitement of a strike seem to the most militant Labourites to l>e less attractive than continuing at work. Now that an election is approaching the Labour leaders are all for peace and good behaviour, and they would have exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent trouble it anything like serious trouble threatened. When idie election is over, however, they will feel that they are free once more to stir up the militancy of their followers. The situation in Australia has revealed often enough the danger that lies in the giving of any large measure of power to the Labour Party. There is no chance whatever that the Labour Party can obtain, a majority in the New Zealand House of Representatives, but there is a distinct risk that the splitting or holding hack of the moderate vote may give Labour a measure of strength which will encourage it to adopt aggressive tactics and t-o foment the industrial trouble which for purely political reasons it is at present anxious to avoid. There is a Labour candidate offering in Westland, and the electors should hear this in mind. Tt is for the loyal electors to see that every vote possible is polled next Wednesday for law and order. Votes east for tbe Labour candidate should therefore not he given unthinkingly. The Government of the country must be preserved and certainly Labour should not be encouraged by strengthening its parliamentary force.