By 1908 the party was tested by the Blackball miners strike and membership had increased to 3,000 by April of that year. Also that year the Socialist Party held its first national conference in Wellington. Many of the early leaders were from the UK and Australia, where radical ideologies were not uncommon among political parties, but were seen as out of touch in New Zealand, where more moderate platforms were the norm. As such the party failed to gain much traction.