THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 825, 27 September 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1906.

Mr J. Ramsay Maodonald, M.P., seoretary of the Independent Labour Party in the House of Commons, is now on his way to the Australian oolonies, partly in search of health and partly in search of informa tion. Ttere are many reasons why such missions should be under* taken, Mr Maodonald told an interviewer before his departure from London, Ihe oolonies, he thought, were apt to misunderstand the British Labour polioy, and were also inclined to think that the Labour Party at Home regarded colonial questions "as something of a nuisance. His .party was extremely anxious to show that there was no ground for saub beliefs, and that there were very real ties of interest between the mother and her yhildien in the field of labour. There were many matters affecting labour which Mr Maodonald expressed his intention of inquiring into, and chief among these came the working of New Zealand's arbitration laws. "We know," be said, "bow excellent the theory is, but we havo to discover whether plans that work well there are adaptable to

the different oiroumstanoes in Great Britain. We have to study the whole matter on the spot, and to find out how far we can profit by the experience to bring out the analogy between our condition and theirs, if there is one." The various sahemes of land settlement and the question of the minimum wage aro also attracting hia attention, although he does not regard the minimum wage ns likely to provide a cure for sweating at Home. "There will," he said, "be many matters arising in all parts of the world which aonoeru our party, not merely as trade unionists, but as upholders of a broad labour policy, and it should be possible to bring the labour men of Canada and South Africa, of Australia and of JNew Zealand to unite with us for more effective action." Mr Maodonald protested thf»t he was not an Imperialist in the geneially-aooepted sense of the term, but on Imperial grounds there were many reasons for the sympathetic co-operation of labour men in all parts of the Empire, so that they might make common cause against any opposition which may arise. "Protection," he concluded, "it is said, is dead and done with. It may be so, but I think there can be no harm iu stamping the earth well down upon its grave. If we had an understanding with the Labour parties in the colonies that they would not aid the Protectionists in this country, our position against the Tariff Eeformers would be greatly strengthened."