Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1895. THE LABOUR PARTY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 5007, 23 April 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1895. THE LABOUR PARTY.

It is now nearly five years since New Zealand witnessed the great labour strike of loyal, but idiotic workmen who blindly obeyed the orders of Miller and other irresponsible cranks. The history of that stupid revolt of the workers is well known; after a few days of intense excitement, varied by comedy and tragedy, the strikefraled out, victory resting with neither party, The effects, however, in many instances, were scorchingly severe to numbers of the misguided strikers, who lost place and pay, landing themselves on poverty shore, and to this day, a good many of them have not recovert '•"■''""strike period was the bey day of tl,e labour leaders and political agitators, Wowed with a radiance, and boomed themse\ Ye3 into comfortable berths, The rank and file were apparently joined together by a fellow feeling of trouble and sorrow, and while this union lasted the general election took, and on the passing wave the so-called Labour Party was carried to success. The Ministry that pandered to the| class, that yielded prompt obedience, to the dictates of tho unions, and provided the more assertive and, troublesome leaders with fat billets,] rotumed to power with a majority pledged to the hilt to support them.

The interval between then and now is filled with the political iniquity of a powerful party, Secure in the strength of a servile majority, Ministers have indulged themselves inactsof political [vandalism and legislative tyranny, to the utter disgust of every sober|minded colonist. The Labour; leaders, like their Ministerial chiefs, abandonedthcmselvestorecklessness. I With visionary aims and illusive [methods, with absurd nostrums and tempting theories they succeed in 1 [dominating the workers for a time, but that period has now passed. Finding thomselves no nearer the [goal, while paying very heavily for the pranks, prejudices, and profits of the agitators, the working men, first in isolated individual cases, and then in numbers, and finally in unions, dissevered themselves from the great federated labour body which had its birth in the memorable strike. Dissatisfied , and jealous agitators formed new

parties, trade unions," and resolved into quasi-friendly societies, and al- ' though the Trades and Labour Council still exists, it is but the 1 shadow of its former self and repre- ( sents scarcely a tithe of the workers ' of the Colony. The Labor Party ■ has been shattered with the exuberance of its own fatuity, but if the Party is killed the audacity and cal- ' lous impudence of the remaining leading lights is not extinguished, it is, however, merely a question of time when this sorry remnant will cease to perform. "The Labour Party," at the present time, is but the tarnished name of a very feeble clique—it has no sympathy or bond of union with the great mass of laborers in the Colony, The working class voters, though they will ever exercise a more or less powerful influence on the political lifo of New Zealand, cannot be organised into a siniplo and effective party which shall entirely govern the field of politics; I there is no common basis for the formation of such a party, and if it. could be organised, it would undoubtedly provo a terrible engine of destruction, for it would of a certainty devote itself to reconstruction according to the promptings of sellish class interest. The destructive character of tho Trades Hall Coun- . cil, manifested itself during the

short period that it actually represented the united workers of the Colony. Wbon tho labouring classes unite and work together as one man, it is sure to be for a revolutionary purpose,. or at anyrato, for something other than the general wellbeing. The conditions of life in the Colonies, do not admit of the possibility of a class unity, wholly for a selfish end, much less will the wage-earners find the need of it, for their position and prospects are relatively better and brighter than those of any other country. The real workers are losing ground by the impolitic and impudent behaviour of self-appointed leaders, and the fact remains that the Labour Party, which began its aggressive policy with the big strike, is now discredited, d ; sbonored, and disintegrated; we must look to the next general election, for its total effacement,