progress on many matters affecting working-class interests. In July 1899, to circumvent these threats, Seddon engaged an "organiser", who formally dissolved each of the local Liberal associations and merged them in a new national body -- the Liberal and Labour Federation. For this, which became the first New Zealand political party in the modern sense, Seddon drew up a formal written constitution which he based on the well-known and successful "Birmingham System". This system, which had been inaugurated by Joseph Chamberlain in the 1880s in Birmingham, became the pattern on which all succeeding political parties in New Zealand have based their organisations. The Liberal and Labour Federation of New Zealand Unlike most of its successors the federation was not, in its initiation, a popular or spontaneous political movement. It was organised downwards pyramidally and the initiative for forming its hierarchy came from the Premier, who also became the party leader. The precise nature of the relationship between the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties was never clearly defined. Cabinet retained its right to be the ultimate arbiter over all matters of policy, although even these, in so far as they arose out of the party platform, were adopted only after consultations between the Cabinet, caucus, and the advisory committee of the party. The platform was drawn up by the Ministers after similar consultations and was adopted, after prolonged discussion, by the Council. More and more, however, the party came to concentrate on its propaganda and fund-raising functions while policymaking remained with the