WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1932, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

LABOUR PARTY’S CONFERENCE. A WEIGHTY programme. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 23. A weighty programme has been prepared for the annual conference of the Labour Party to lie held in AVellington during Easter AVeek, and no doubt the proceedings will be of a particularly interesting character. For some there have been indications of dl|§|||i<?tjon in the ranks of the party and it ivould not be surprising if these came to the surface during the approaching gathering. One of the ..proposals to he submitted to the Conference is that the leader of the representatives of the party in Parliament should be elected by the delegates at the annual conference and not by the Labour representatives themselves. This is being regarded in some quarters as a thrust at Mr H. E. Holland, the present leader of the party, whom, it must be admitted, is not altogether adapted to a position requiring a considerable measure of tact as well as a certain gift of speech ; but it is not easy to see how a parliamentary party of twenty-lour could be effectually controlled from outside.

PARTY CONTROL. It is plain, however, that there is a considerable section of the Labour Party outside Parliament that holds fast to the doctrine that the affairs of tile Dominion should be regulated not by elected representatives but by the crowd outside. One of the proposals to be submitted to the approaching conference is “that Labour should not take office unless in a majority in the House”, and another suggests that “the names of members of a Labour Cabinet should be submitted to a special conference of the party for approval before the personnel of the Cabinet is announced. Just how these resolutions should be determined in the event of their becoming resolutions is hard to say; but less obscure proposals are made in regard to the abolition of the Legislative Council and the country quota. The Lesislative Council simply is to be voted out of existence and the country quota is to be placed on the same footing as the town quota. These are measures that were being discussed long before the Labour Party came into prominence.

HAND TIED LABOUR. Under the heading of “Party Administration” the Mew Zealand Waterside Workers’ Federation contributes to the agenda paper of the approaching conference a remit which could not be abbreviated without deteriorating its flavour. “Any person appointed or elected to any executive position of the party; any person approved, nominated or elected as a representative of the party for positions on any public body or in Parliament”, this titbit runs, “shall sign a pledge that lie or she will faithfully carry out the policy of the party as may be decided by tfie annual conference or special conference from time to time. If any person holding an executive position in the party or any candidate or person elected as a representative of the party disapprove of, or acts contrary to, the policy of the party, the national executive shall immediately demand his or her resignation.” it would not he surprising if with such restrictions as these imposed upon a Labour member of Parliament lie should both wall; and talk warily on the eve of a general election.

MORE DISCIPLINE.

Nor is this by any means the end of the discipline that is to be administered more or less directly, to Labour members of Parliament in the near future. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council proposed that the twenty-four Labour members of Parliament should place their services at the disposal of the national executive from now until the next General Election. The Hastings branch of the organisation urges that “the headline of the Labour Party's election manifesto at the next election be straight out proposal to reduce the interest rates and that all borrowing proposals he eliminated from election policies.” A Canterbury remit urges that the full “advantages of the Electoral Act should he applied to the Moans’’ hat, n;s the Maoris already enjoy various advantages in this respect, it is difficult to understand what further advantages they might he given with reasonable propriety. It would seem, indeed, that if the various sections of the Labour Party had their way Parliament speedily would become their handmaiden.