THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3180, 28 March 1911, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY.

AN OPTIMISTIC STATEMENT.

OPINION OF AN AUCKLAND LABOURITE.

[SPECIAL TO TIME3.] AUCKLAND, March 27. Mr T. Walsh secretary of the Auckland Labour Party, returned yesterday after a tour of the Commonwealth. Speaking to a “Star” representative. Mr Walsh referred to Labour prospects in Australia. “There is,” he said, “most extraordinary . activity m the Labour movement. Being a Labour man myself, I got underneath the surface, as it were, and obtained information which would not be available to the ordinary man. From my observations, I have no hesitation in saying thatthroughout the -Commonwealth the Labour movement is pulsating healthily, and spreading'with remarkable rapidity. The organisation is perfect, and public interest, in political issues greater than I have ever known before.

AN “ALL-AUSTRALIA” FEELING. . One, of the most marked changes, to my mind, is the fact that, in the few years since I was last* in tne Commonwealth, a feeling which is “all-Austra-lian’* has sprung into- existence. The State jealousies seem to have died right/ down, and in- their place has grown a patriotic desire for the common weal ot the one great Commonwealth. In Sydney. Melbourne, Hobart and other cities I found the same public interest anu zeal in regard to political questions. The man in the street and the passengers by car and tram all seem .to find pleasure in an intelligent interest in politics, and the feeling towards the Labour Governments, both Federal and State, is one of general satisfection, despite the fact that practically every daily paper in Australia is anti-Labour. Certainly I would say that the Labour Government has come to stay in Australia. Already practically all the public services have been reorganised on practical and beneficial lines, and there is now greater content and prosperity amongst the people of the Commonwealth than I have ever before known.”