THE LABOUR PARTY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10542, 26 January 1912, Page 5

THE LABOUR PARTY.

[To The Editor.] Sir, — As a working 'man, I cannot' understand why it is that Mr Hogg ur still sitting on the fence, so to speak. If Mr Hogg wants the raptport, or- wiiiycf to support. the Labour party, why does he not sign the Labour pledge? Winy, does he not belong to tlf> r«rty? Surely the 'last elections proved to lv)tli Mr McLaren

[-'••c-cj rliat hinging 'on to j a wreck, instead of getting: into fhe proffer* d lifol-cpt, n-eant to both those ge.ritleme'ri a' political cold bath. .\!V \ T eitch. M.P., left the'wt'ock and dung; to the phuikfi <>f the La-boar P«rty, plank's which when placed together ship-shape formed the lifeboat of Reform, and landed him ,ni'o into his present foothold on the floor I oi' the House of Parliament. That alone proves thai .while party politics are in vogue, you must be one party or the other, and sitting on the, waiting for the wind to blow : s (.f | no avail, because the last gust of wuitical, wind J>]en> both tihe.ve genf*e)i»n outside ,th<>. fence. I, urge up'>>i my fellow workers* to stand by reform', and. to us?e their .political voters toward tiiat end; remembering ) yo,ur wailings of the past against the Ward administration. If you ev. I got ;i p-wlged party man, then, «s ' I lueanbers cif that party, you j stand by him, and 1 think you must i lilave stood"by the proper man at the ; last election, a man. with a cl:an < platform, and souna pledges, who was , not afraid of the Ward party, but j stood apart from and answered your ! cries of two years ago. Hie workers of Xew Zealand cried in a loud voice flcninst- the attitude of Sir Joseph I Ward at the Imperial Conference and the almighty Lhreadmought, also Against the inability of the Government to carry out the labour legislation now on the Statute Book. Wo all know that the Arbitration Act is a model, but the working of it and •administration of the Act is- wrong, both to employers and employee*. . The Advancer, to Settlers Office is practically closed up. The price of living is too hign.- Monopoly is thriving under. Po-wiLled protection. .Butter was Is 8d ,per'lb in New Zealand, and .lOd per to shipped to England. Large areas of land are lying idle, while scores of men with familio"; 'are waiting, to get on the land. Cattle trucks are conveying passengers up tibe Wkiirarnpa line wlie-i they have an engine to spare to bring them. , Mr G. R. Sykes, M.1?., knew all these grievances, and miiip out- (lend against the Government thiat caused them', and now ho riaiitlv represents us in .Parliament, mid his pledges all tend toward the welfare, of the people of New Zealand, and ho is fnot hanging on the tails of a wornout ooat.— I am, etc., A WORKING JfjA.Y.