Sir.—Patricia Caughley. in her assessment of the Labour Party (Salient June 3), is, I think, making several misconceptions which are, however, common in much political and historical writing on New Zealand. The main misconception is that of equating "Socialism" with Labourist "ideology," and hence the interpretation that by rejecting overt ideology Labour is illustrating the impracticality of Socialism. Indeed, Labour may have espoused, at one time, socialism for New Zealand, but this is begging the question, for Socialism is no mere myth acting as an idealist panacea, but is as Marx defined it, a total transformation of man and society.