the Unity Committee. Just how hard the Wellington members of the committee worked has never been made known. Day after day we sat and drafted, amended, and rejected rules, platforms, constitutions and declaration of principles. Discussion at times seemed endless. A point of difference was debated till some mutually satisfactory basis was reached. I find in a statement subsequently submitted to the July Congress that I stated that the committee had not only received thousands of communications, but that 50,000 bulletins had been sent out and over 6,000 letters and circulars had been dispatched. Members of the committee alone addressed over 150 meetings in different parts of the country, and when the enthusiasm of that period is recalled it would be safe to say that the number of meetings held in support of unity must have been one thousand at the very least.
The whole of the time of Mr. Semple, Federation organiser, was devoted to furthering the campaign, and in all Federation centres our organisation was unstintedly used to promote a successful conference in July.
One great loss to the Federation and to the Unity Committee was the resignation of R. S. Ross, from the editorship of “The Maoriland Worker” and from the Unity Committee and his departure for Australia. To me this decision of Bob’s was little short of a tragedy, not only because of his capacity as a working-class exponent, but also because of the very close personal association between us.
The Federation Executive appointed H. E. Holland to the editorship, a position he filled with conspicuous ability until his election to Parliament, except for a short break of a few months whilst he was “in residence on the Terrace.”
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