THE LABOR PARTY.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1919, Page 5

THE LABOR PARTY.

MINDING THEIR OWN BUSINESS,

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Dee. 22. A Labor rally held in Wellington last night was very much less enthusiastic in tone than were the meetings held before polling day. The candidates who represented Labor in the Wellington contest were the speakers, and they all had something to say in support of proportional representation. They 6aid that the Reformers had polled about 186,000 votes at the election, the Liberals 102,000 votes and the Laborites 128,000, and they attributed Mr; Massey's majority to a faulty electoral system. Mr. P. Fraser made a belated admission that his side had been responsible for the persistent interruption of his | opponents' meetings in the election campaign. He suggested that Labor could have worked harder. "Were we content to shout at our own meetings instead of working?" he asked. "Were we content to go in a, rather silly fashion to our opponents' meetings and shout them down? There are some lessons to be learned from this election, and one of them is that it is better to watch our own* business and attend our own meetings." The announcement. was made during the meeting that Mr. R. Semple, who was defeated in Wellington South, would devote himself tn political organisation I for the Labor Tarty dur'ng the next three rears.