The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 27. LABOUR CANDIDATES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 211, 27 August 1908, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, AUGUST 27. LABOUR CANDIDATES.

With the single exception, of \ ictoviA, ■which ill extent, of icl'rlLory approx! mates to New. Zealand, all the States of .the Commonwealth consist of immense tracts of country divided into sheep-runs, where, politically, the squatter lord is not. supreme. The Australian squatter has, of course, his homestead, and he is " boss " over the few servants and attendants immediately suriiounding him, but his hut-keepers, shepherds and shearers are politically dominated by the councils of their unions, and | these employees constitute the grc.it bulk of the back-blocks constituencies. In Victoria, where the squatter has almost entirely disappeared, the Labour Party, has never attained to the inlluence and power it has enjoyed in the other States, the farmer and the miner having practically driven the squatter iii'.o other spheres.

; , ouscipu'iice of these economic conditions has been that in Australia the Labor Party is actually stronger in the backblocks 'than in the cities, and tli.s aocounts for the strong representation Labor has been enabled to secure ju tee Legislatures. Like Victoria, in New Zealand, under the Land for Settlements Act and other measures bearing upon the occupancy of land, the big sheep runs are gradually disappearing and the fanner lias conic, or is coining, into the holding of the soil. Political:} the 'fanner is a different kind of individual altogether from the hut-keeper, the shepherd, and the shearer of the b:g squatter. By nature the farmer in Ne,v i Zealand is almost as conservative—- ! using the word ill its full meaning—is ever" the farmer was in England; ne largely employs the members ot his family in lUc wovk of liis fu.ini 5 t few "hands" to whom he pays wages bein» only such as it is impossible tor h)ni"to do without. In this Dominion the labor unions, controlling from town and city centres, do not possess anything like the power they have acquired in the Australian States, and as the work of settlement goes forward tiny are certain to lose rather than gum.

The attempts winch have recently been made to organise farm laborers into unions, the control of which, ultimately, if not just at present, would fall m'o the hands of self-seeking agitators in the cities, are simply parts of a big P"»tical policy to shift the administration of the affairs of the country into tin; hands of men with narrow ideas and no appreciation of what is conducive to the country's best interests, in New Zealand, where evevv adult not ot unsound mind can take a part, howevei small that part may be, in the making of the laws under which he lives, aiv< where those who are immediately concerned ill the work of legislation aio compensated for any loss they are likely to sustain through attention to public duty, self-seeking lias been narrowed m the great councils of the country inl '> a desire to get into ollice. The striving to attain monopolies, the engineering of "Trust" Bills, the seeking to obtain by legislation particular advantages which would be likely to result in huge financial gains, are, happily, in this country now quite unknown. Taken us a whole, our legislators have been higli'y intelligent men, and, more than all, they have been diligent and jealous watchers that nothing should pass through their hands in any degree likely to convey to any class, corporation, or individual special advantages for which the community would have to pay. In this respect at least our public life is pure; and, after all the years of strenuous effort to achieve such an end, it is a splendid tiling to be able to contentedly contemplate the fact. As ''lias been indicated, the struggle ffV the sweets of ollice may open a door for an occasional display of self-seeking, but such self-seeking is not without great compensating gains. It stimulates to ell'ort and check, and it calls fort it the highest ability. The great aim of our legislators on the whole has been to do justice, not only to every class but every individual, and assuredly Labor in this connection has come ia for its fair share of consideration. Now, in view of what has been said, tlieiv is a sci:ion anxious for the cslab'.islimeji of an independent Labor Tarty. Here . 1 may be pertinently asked, What Ims the Labor Party done for Labor ill Alls tralia thai has not been done or attempted in New Zealand ?• It is true that in 18111 there emanated from the Dibbs Government, in New South Wales, some inane talk about industrial irbitration, but that does not detract from the fact that Now Zealand was the earliest, to have upon her statute-book the first genuine attempt to grapple j willi the dillieulties of the Labor ques- I tion.

Have the Legislatures of Australia, with their powerful labor parties, shown themselves more anxious to advance the interests of the worker and to lift him financially, intellectually, and morally into a higher sphere than has the Legislature of New Zealand? It can "be claimed that not only have they not done so, but that more has been done for Labor in New Zealand than in any other land under the sun. This leads on to the self-seeking out of Parliament—the frothing, mouthing, political mountebanks who think they see in the position of a member of Parliament an escape from labor with their hands, with a remuneration greater than they ever dreamed of in their wildest imaginings. The way they are striving to win to the coveted goal makes manifest their utter lack of sense and their comploie destitution of the qualities which are required for the position. In the country districts they appear to realise that they have no hold whatever, but they hope t»» win a seat, or two in the cities. They are, of course, doomed to disappointment : but even if they did succeed, of what value to Labor would te 1 the presence of one or two such representatives in the House of Representatives ?