WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 29 December 1919, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE LABOR PARTY. WHAT IT THINKS OF ITSELF. 1 (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, Dec. 23. Everybody knows by this time what the politicians and the newspapers think of the Now Zealand Labor Party. They have been busy for months past, for years, indeed, proclaiming to the world at large their opinion of the new force, or rather the old force with a new face, that has appeared in the political life of the Dominion demanding a place in the sun and a voice in the counsels of the nation. But the Labor Pariv hitherto has not deigned to tell the public in any explicit terms what it thinks of itself. Perhaps it has been in no hurry to make the disclosure. Had it been known to its opponents j month ago that it had 130,000 votes to poll the knowledge might have altered the whole complexion of the recent contest, to its own disadvantage, It even might have brought about an arrangement between the two old parties that would have delayed the advance of Labor for another three years. That, at any rate, is the opinion of Labor itself.

THE THREE CORNERED FIGHT.

Now that Labor has risen in one effort from the bottom rung of the ladder to the very middle of its span it is more confident and less reticent. To-duv one of the shining lights of the party, a shrewd, hard-headed, and hard-handed man, who believes the goal to which lie and his friends are marching already is in F.ight, grew quite communicative concerning the immediate past and the not distant future of the party. It was' true, he said, that Labor had regarded Liberalism as the only serious obstacle to its progress. It had held in thraldom thousands of timid electors who had desired to go forward and yet feared to advance. The Labor vote where it could not go to its own candidates had gone to Reform. There was no collusion between the parties, but Labor knew well enough that when Reform was in the same ease it would smite Liberalism hip and thigh.

LABOR JUBILANT. Labor, this authority averred, was more than satisfied with the result of the election. It was jubilant. It plunged into many hopeless contests merely for the opportunity of preaching the gospel; it entered others expecting only to keep the Liberal candidate out and in several instances it had succeeded. Labor had no grudge against the Liberals ; many' of them ought to have entered the Labor camp long ago, and many of them doubtless would .in the near future; but Libel-alism had stood still for years, and had finally effaced itself by accepting the party truce and consigning the country to four years of stagnation, exploitation, and profiteering. Labor did not question the good faith or the good intentions of the Liberals—of' course theoretically they were a hundred times more progressive than the Reformers were—-but they had lost their initiative and virility and simply encumbered the path of' democracy. THE PARTY'S FUTURE. This enthusiasm made light o f tlie dissensions known to exist in the ranks of Labor They were only passing phases in the growth of a young party, untrammelled by traditions and unrestrained by responsibilities. The party had made mistakes, and had earned some of the opprobrium, that had been heaped upon it. Some of its members had done foolish things, and said many more. But what party in the days of its youth and even in the days of its old age had not done the same? But. these indiscretions and mistakes could be retrieved. They were, in fact, being retrieved already. The men the party had sent to Parliament, veritable tirebrands in the estimation of their opponents, had borne themselves with dignity, had urged their cause with moderation and had observed all obligations imposed upon them by their high position. Surely, this Labor champion insisted in conclusion, these men had shown as much honest concern for the welfare of the country as had the representatives of any other sectiou of the community.