Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1932. AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 52, Issue 207, 14 June 1932, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 1932. AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

The overwhelming victory achieved by the Anti-Lang parties in the General Elections is conclusive proof of the opinion of the people of New South Wales regarding the policy that the Labour Government has pursued during the eighteen months it has held office. Certainly the opposing parties were in a much stronger position, —as the result of the working agreement between the United Australia Party and the Country Party—than they were at the last contest. Then again the ranks of the Labourites were split owing to differences as to the Premier's policy and methods. But the unifying of the vote against Labour does not alone account for such a swing-over. The reason for the vote of the people is to be found in the same cause that was responsible for the falling away of some of Mr Lang s political supporters,, —realisation that continuance of the Lang policy of defiance of all political axioms and economic laws would inevitably end in disaster. The sweeping of Lang representation from the country areas was expected, but though some changes were anticipated in regard to the metropolitan seats, the returns in several are noteworthy as indicating the general, loss of prestige that has been suffered by the Lang planners. In Queensland, where the issue is still in doubt, there has been a swingover to Labour, this being in contrast to the position at the recent election in Victoria, where the Lapour Government was defeated recently. Labour Governments, beginning with Mr Theodore, reduced the State nearly to bankruptcy, but the CountryNationalist Ministry, under Mr A. t. Moore, succeeded in putting the finances in good order. The economies needed and the general depression reacted against the return of that Ministry to office. Mr Moore made the carrying out of the Premiers Plan the main plank in his platform and said he would stand or fall that policy. "The people," he said, must choose either the steep, thorny path of honour, of public economy, and or national, solvency, or the easier way of repudiated obligations, ot default and robbery legalised by legislation." The Labour leader, Mr Forgan Smith, was non-committal in his policy speech and said nothing about the scheme outlined by the Labour Convention for a programme costing £9,225,000 a year, full award rates for'relief workers and so forth. Fortunately he is not an extremist of the type of Mr Lang.