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Right Hon. the Prime Minister : I think we agreed early in the day that all papers other than those presented by the economists should be referred to the Business Committee. Mr. Bishop : That was as to whether they should be discussed or questions asked about them. Mr. Mcßrine : Has the motion to adjourn been seconded ? Right Hon. the Prime Minister: No. Mr. Mcßrine: Then I second it. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : Is there any discussion on the resolution ? Mr. Bishop : The suggestion that Mr. Robert's paper should be presented this afternoon came from himself ; and we, on our part, are willing to waive in regard to this paper the resolution passed this morning that the papers should be referred to the Business Committee. The Business Committee would still have ample time to meet after the adjournment and deal with the order of presentation of other papers. Mr. Nash : I would suggest that Mr. Bishop's proposal is quite a good one. This is a paper on the objective of the Conference, and not contentious as other papers might be. It is a paper that should be considered by the Conference before it goes into committee. Delegates : Aye, aye. Right Hon. the Prime Minister: IShall we consider the motion for the adjournment dropped? Delegates : Aye. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : Then you have to go back on what was agreed to early in the day about the reference of papers to the Business Committee, and make an exception in the case of this paper. Delegates : Aye, aye. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : Have you any objection to the committee I named meeting me while the paper is being presented ? Mr. Roberts : No. Right Hon. the Prime Minister : Then, we will meet in the next room, as soon as the paper gets under way. Mr. Bloodworth read the following report of the Labour delegation, setting out its ideas regarding Conference objective : — - Report of Labour Delegation setting out its Ideas regarding Conference Objective. The employees' section of the Conference, representing, as it does, the organized workers of the country in agriculture, industry, and commerce, regards the Conference as one of the most important events of recent years, and has thought it appropriate to state briefly what it considers should be the objective of the Conference. First, we may state that the very fact that the Government agreed to call a Conference and give it such a wide order of reference is sufficient proof that there is a feeling of uneasiness regarding the present and future economic and industrial position of this country, and need for an adjustment calculated to give better results than are at present obtained. This adjustment can, in our opinion, only be brought about by a greater degree of co-operation between all the parties who contribute anything essential to the national well-being than has hitherto prevailed ; but, having said that, we wish also to state that in our opinion trade-unionism can never make peace with capitalism in the sense of acquiescing in that system. This, however, does not imply a blind destructive fury against the existing economic order. Economic questions such as the Conference will discuss are at once wide in range and subject-matter, and at the same time very specialized in character ; but, in our opinion, all sections should recognize frankly that the first need for all —business men, farmers, commercial men, and workers —is that we should get at the facts, not merely as they affect our own particular section but as they affect the national well-being. If we regard the Conference as primarily and essentially a forum of public discussion, designed, indeed, to get at the facts and to facilitate future practical results, but not to achieve them during its present session, the difficulty of the range and complexity of economic questions is greatly reduced, though not eliminated. Various as are the shapes which our difficulties and their proximate causes assume, they are, in our opinion, all forms of disorganization, dislocation, and maladjustment. The objective of the Conference, as we see it, is to discover, if possible, a way by which in this country a greater measure of social justice can be secured. Social justice should not be subordinated to consideration of industrial progress ; but we recognize that its attainment very largely depends on securing increased industrial, commercial, and agricultural prosperity, and that prosperity cannot be solid and lasting unless it is based "on social justice. Conference should aim at using the organized powers of employers and workers to promote effective co-operation in developing better methods of production, eliminating unnecessary waste, friction, and causes of conflict, in order to increase national wealth and provide for a steadily rising standard of social life and continuously improving conditions of employment for all workers. Whilst the total elimination of such waste, friction, and causes of conflict may be quite impossible, as we believe it is so long as the wages system lasts> the hope of the immediate future undoubtedly lies in the intimate and continuous association of both management and labour for the purpose of adjusting differences and for the purpose of promoting the progressive improvement of these industrial services from which alone the national prosperity can be derived. Both employers and employed are the victims of a system that has organized industry on the lines of a tug-of-war, and permeated the whole national life with sectional habits of thought and outlook. Wherever coercion has been applied by one side against the other, it has called forth a resistance that otherwise might never have arisen, and has led to much sterility and waste. The two sides rarely meet except to make demands of one another or to compromise conflicting claims, and negotiations are inevitably carried 011 as between two hostile bodies. In this way great powers of leadership and

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