The Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1920. THE QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 8 October 1920, Page 4

The Star.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1920. THE QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

Oelivered every evening hy 6 o'clock 'In Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Elthani, Mangatoki, Eaponga, Awatuaa, Opunake, Otakeho, Monutahi, Alton, Hurley ville, Patea, Waverley.

To-morrow & general election will be held in Queensland. Very great interest is being taken. throughout the Commonwealth in the, poll because ot the important principles at issue. The extreme Labour Party which has occupied the Treasury benches has endeavoured to put into operation doctrines similar <to those he.ld by the New Zealand Labour Party, and the results have been disastrous. By dishonouring contracts made with those who in past years have lent money to the State the Theodore Ministry broken the. confidence of financiers, and the Government finds itself in, serious difficulties. " Mr. Theodore thought that by taking a trip to London he could persuade people with money to lend to loosen the purse strings, but, he was immediately confronted by the hard fact that he and his colleagues by passing the Repudiation Acts had destroyed British confidence in Queensland, and he found that the sources of finance were closed to him and his extreme Labour doctrines. Finding that he was serioasly "up;against it," the Premier began to denounce British financiers. Like, the ox who had set j out to get the gr,apes when he failed to reach them, he excused himself by saying that the grapes were sour. But complaints about sour i grapes will not provide the wherewithal to manage a State's affairs, though they may give a party a battle cry for an election campaign and serve to hide the real issues. In the present House the Opposition holds only twenty-five of the seventy-two seats, and its power to stop the passage of the Repudiation i Acts was quite inade.quate. For some years past there has been a National Democratic Union of parties in Queensland, but its predominance has passed to the Country party, of which the leader is Mr Vowles, formerly a Nationalist and later leader of the Opposition. The position is that the Country party, smarting under the iniquitous repudiation policy as expressed in the Land Act amendment, which has abrogated contracts with capitalists and has made the leasehold conditions most difficult for the people holding them, is now the strongest opppnent of the Government. Mr Theodore and his colleagues ■ are busy trying to convince the electors that the London financiers are.to blame, 'and hot the Socialistic legislation of the Government, but he is being met with clear statements by those Vho are opposing him. For instance. ia few days ago in the course of an ■address, ex-Labour Senator J. C. , Stewart said: "Mr -Theodore and'his supporters deny the idea of repudiation. Let me tell you that the repudiation of the. public debt of this State has been talked about for years in the inner circles of the Labour movement. I was one of them, and I know what was going on perfectly well while I was there, but the majority against that kind of thing was large. Now apparently the extremists—the madmen, as I used to call them—of the Labour movement have got on to the box se.ai and seized the reins, and the team has bolted." To-morrow the electors of Queensland will have the opportunity of getting rid. of their "madmen" <and stopping the "bolt," but the legacy which will be left to the. new Government will be one of many difficulties, and if, as every reasonable person hopes, the Queensland electors turn out of office the party which has brought such financial chaos and has turned the State into a hunting ground for unscrupulous Labour extremists, then there will be some hope for Queensland's future. If the Theodore party, by its appeals to prejudice and studied neglect of principles, regains, power then the future of the State • will be indeed hopeless, and we may look forward to a steady downward passage of a State that skould be one of the most prosperous to chaos and perhaps ultimately revolution. One member of the Theodore Government was bold enough to express the party's policy when the Land Act amendment was before the House, and we are convinced that no party holding such views can possibly direct a State fairly and along proper democratic lines. This is what the member said: "I hold the same view—perhaps unfortunately, now that the war is on —as a man called Nietzsche, a German. I hold the view that one is not justified in sticking to a contract if the necessities and. circumstances, particularly the circumstances, tinder which the contract was made have considerably altered^" Loyal British people went to war because of their opposition to such wretched doctrines as Nietzsche taught, and while so-called Labour parties follow such German methods they can hope for noshing but strong resistance from all the people

of higher moral principles. If the ] electors of Queensland realise what the I position is, th^y will give .a decided ! majority to the candidates opposed to ' Mr Theodore's ruinous policy. The danger is that such masters of camouflage as the extremist leaders have shown themselves to be may haye succeeded in hoodwinking the- electors. Let us hope that the result of the poll, which is to be taken under the proportional representation system, will be an overwhelming defeat of the party which has already done the State much serious mischief by passing un- | reasonable and un'prifacipled legialai tion..