WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 24 February 1933, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

LABOUR’S GROWTH

A SLOW PROGRESS

(Special to “Guardian.”)

; WELLINGTON, February 21. Although’ the Labour Party in this Dominion, not uncommonly styled “His Majesty’s Opposition” prides itself upon tire .possession of twenty-four members in the present House of Representatives, it cannot be said truthfully that jt- hau acquired any impre.sive strength in the management of the affairs of the country during the last twenty-two years. The first out and out Labour representative in this country’s Parliament was Mr William Wilcox Tanner, who was elected to the constituency of Heath cote, a 'Suburban district bordering upon the (Hiby of O’ irist Viurch, in December 181X4, and held it, under the changed rofe of Avon, for five Parliaments. It then passed, in December 1908, into the custody of the Hon. G. W. Russell, from whom it was worsted in December 1919 by Mr Daniel Sullivan, with whom it st-ill remains. Preceding Mr Sullivan in 1914 in the cause of /Labour, were Mir W. A. Veitch, (Wanganui) ; .Mr John Payne, (Grey Lynn); Mr P. C. Webb (Grey) ; Mr A. Walker '(Dunedin); and Mr A. H. Henderson (Wellington Suburbs).

ITS DEVELOPMENT. Nineteen years ago all these members of the House by the mere fact of proclaiming themselves Labour representatives brought a certain measure of suspicion upon themselves from the old parties, Reform and Liberal.' Mr Tanner had disappeared and Mr Rus icll had filled liis place. By the time the Great War broke out, a few months aft:''/ the election by the. new House, however, Mr Hindmareh and Mr Veitch were recognised by both the older parties as faithful servants of the crown; hut the other four Labour members were regarded wjth some suspicion for quite a time, Mr Webb aggravating his position by refusing to undertake military service. When the Notional Ajjinistry was formed in 1915 Mir Hind marsh might have had o" i e of the portfolios allotted to the Liberal nominees to the Cabinet, but ns leader of his own party he preferred to remain untrammelled by a.nv obligation that might embarrass his party associates. Unhappily ‘the services he would have rendered to the State were shortened by Lis early death.

PROGRESS. The general electionafter...the ,cpn-\.-elusion of Ae Great War in 191.9 surely is the most remarkable, contest of the kind : n the history of the Dominion. The National Ministry bad been formed on August 12, 1.915, and was dissolved on August 25, 1919. Towards the end of 1918 Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward together attended the Peace Conference in Paris. On their return to the Dominion they both sot about preparing for the inevitable general election. In the contest that followed Reform with 206,461 votes secured forty-four seats; . Liberal with 193,337 votes twenty-two seats; Labour with 127,012 votes eight seats and Independents with 12,345 vo'es two seats. Roughly speaking this meant that it took twice as many Liberal votes to secure a Liberal seat as it took Reform votes to secure a Reform seat, and five times as many Labour votes. In the circumstances it is no wonder Mr Massey was ready to bang up his Proportional Representation Act for the Legislative Council indefinitely.

WHAT THEY DO. When ane comes, to think of those twenty-four Labour members in the House., and of the twenty-two and the sixteen that have been there befoie, it is difficult to recall anything of consequence they have' done during the last two or so for the welfare of the Dominion and its people. It is true they have done something to improve the oratory of the House, and, one might say, to enlarge its vision; hut most of this might have been obtained at any street corner, and, on occasions, at less expense. But having admitted all this, and more if it should he required, it is hard to recall any great achievement which has seemed wholly the product o.f a member of His Majesty’s Opposition. Labour has delivered many able speeches, some of them entertaining, some of them instructive, but few of them really helpful to its constituents.