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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

[introduction]

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The Chairman (Mr. Andrew Collins, J.P., President of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council), in introducing Mr. Tillrtt, said the meeting had been called to do honour to one of England's greatest Labour Leaders—a man who had unselfishly devoted his talents and energies to the cause of Labour, and who had sacrificed his health thereby. On behalf of the workers of Wellington he had much pleasure in presenting Mr. Tillett with a framed address, and the wish had been expressed that Mr. Tillett would allow it to be hung in a conspicuous place in his home in the Old Country. The address was as follows:—

"We, the undersigned, on behalf of the workers of the City of Wellington, accord to you a hearty and cordial welcome to the shores of New Zealand. For several years your name has been familiar to us as that of one of the most energetic Labour organisers in Great Britain, and one of its most prominent and highly respected Labour leaders. It is therefore with feelings of the greatest satisfaction that we look forward to an intimate personal acquaintance with you. We express the hope that such acquaintance will be to our mutual advantage—that out of your matured experience of different conditions to those that obtain here we may learn that which will be useful to us in the future, while you will have an opportunity of studying on the spot the results of much advanced social legislation that has now passed the experimental stage. We trust that in this land of ours, so generously endowed by Nature, you will obtain the restored health which we understand you come hither to seek, and that the ultimate result of your visit will be to draw closer the fraternal bonds between the workers of the Old Country and the New." (Here follow names of the Presidents and Secretaries of the Trades Unions of Wellington).

Mr. Tillett, who was heartily welcomed, said: Mr. Chairman, my fellow Brothers and Sisters,—Hook upon this evening as an evening bringing to me newer hope in this expression of goodwill towards myself and to the movement in the Old Country. During my stay in New Zealand page 4 I have met with the most cordial welcome: I have been received as a man and as a brother, and I have recognised that the undercurrent of feeling is one of intense interest in the Mother Land. One feels all the more proud of one's country to know that sentiments that make for what is good, and for what is noble, and for what is true, from the nation's standpoint, animate you people of New Zealand, and are expressed to me as one coming right from the Old Country, with most of its wrongs burned into his memory and much of his health and his energy left behind. I have come here to seek rest, and I did not expect to find that my welcome would be so sincere. Neither did I have the least notion of what would be expected of me. I merely came out for the voyage to go home in the same vessel, but I understood on landing at Port Chalmers that such was not to be. And I was very glad that it was not to be, for I should have been very lonely indeed if I had not met many friends, some of whom I have also seen in the Old Country, and who worked in some of the old fights with me at Home. So that makes my reception all the sweeter. I thank the organisations, many of which are represented here, for their interest, I thank them for the goodwill expressed in the handsome address presented to me: and I only hope that your beautiful New Zealand climate will enable me to regain that amount of health necessary for me to go and fight in the Old Country the battle that requires almost superhuman labour. (Applause.) I have been very ill all the night, and was very ill to-day, so perhaps you will not expect a great deal of me. If I could only say what is in my very soul, if I could only return my gratitude to you for the welcome given to me, if I could only thank you on behalf of the workers of the Old Country and my own family, I should indeed have an eloquent theme which would take me a long time to speak on. But I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I only hope that ray visit here will give a little inspiration to some of you toiling like ourselves to obtain juster and better laws. In the Old Country we hardly know what victory is, we know more of failure and defeat; but, I am pleased to say, we have some of the greatest men, with some of the grandest intellects, sacrificing themselves to make the Old Country a better country than it is. We are not able to command with a flourish of trumpets great moral victories, but some of us who have had to keep our watch in the night-time, and in the darkness of this fight, have seen occasionally