LABOUR’S RECORD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 954, 23 April 1930, Page 8

LABOUR’S RECORD

PARTY’S REPORT PRESENTED OFFICERS CHOSEN FOR YEAR Pres-s Association WELLINGTON, Tuesday. The annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party was continued today. The election of officers resulted as follows;—President, Mr. J. Thorn; vice-president, the Rev. J. K. Archer; secretary and treasurer, Mr. W. Nash, M.p.; divisional area executive", Messrs. M. J. Savage, M.P., W. E. Barnard, M.P., J. S. Montgomerie, W. J. Rogers, J. Whittle, W. Taylor, T. Parfitt, F. R. Cooke, J. R. Snedden, F. Jones and J. Alsweiler. The conference adopted the annual report of the Parliamentary Labour Party and recorded its appreciation of the magnificent work of the members of the Parliamentary party, particularly the splendid efforts on behalf of the unemployed. The conference expressed its continued confidence in the members of the party in Parliament. Referring to the Labour no-confi-deuce amendment concerning the salaries of public servants, the report explained that prior to the party coming to a decision on the proposals it would place before the House, its executive met representatives of the executives of the various public service organisations. When ultimately the Labour amendment was drafted, it embodied what the representatives of public servants had agreed would be satisfactory to their organisations. Defending the attitude of the party toward the Reform no-confidence amendment, the report stated: —“We took up the attitude that we could vote for the rejection of the primage duty if no other issue were involved, but the. Government’s land and in-come-tax proposals were to some extent in line with the Labour Party’s policy, and we were not prepared to vote them out. The main question involved, moreover, was not either the primage duty or the Jand and income taxes. The decision that had to be made on the no-confidence motion was whether the Labour Party was to place the Reform Party back on the Government benches. In view of the Reform Party’s past legislative and administrative record and tne people's emphatic rejection of botli that party and its policy in 1928, we were not at that stage prepared to take the responsibility of placing Mr. Coates and his supporters back in office. Consequently we voted against the amendment, which was defeated by 48 votes to 24. “It is Understood this is a prelim inary to the abolition of compulsory military training,”. said the report, in dealing with the recent cancellation of military camps pending the meeting of Parliament. , “If that is the case, it will represent a victory for the Labour movement, which has advocated the abolition of forced militarism from its inception.” It was decided to co-operate with the Seamen’s Union, the Cooks and Stewards’ Union, and the Merchant Service Guild, in asking the Government to amend tlie present law in the direction of providing greater facilities to enable seamen to exercise the franchise at elections.