SMASHING DEFEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 112, 14 May 1929, Page 7

SMASHING DEFEAT.

QUEENSLAND LABOUR. General Mismanagement Cause Of Rout. STAGNATION IN INDUSTRY. (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) BRISBANE, May 13. It is now regarded as certain that the anti-Labour forces in the new Queensland Parliament will have a majority o£ 21. Prominent Labcmr officials say that two more Ministers Mr. J. Stopford, Home Secretary, and Mr. M. J. Kirwan, Minister of Works, are certain to be defeated at Mount Morgan and Brisbane respectively. The Premier, Mr. William McCormack, attributes his smashing defeat to the general desire for a change of Government, to the promise of the Oppositions to find employment for 10,000 unemployed, and to the Government's hostile attitude toward the railwaymen's and waterside workers' strikes some time ago. Disinterested judges, however, say the defeat of Labour was due to its general mismanagement and its failure to solve the unemployment problem; also to the stagnation of industry generally. The Parliamentary Committee of the Federal Country party says 14 years of State Communism in Queensland has ended with the most remarkable defeat in the history of Australian politics. The next Premier of Queensland, Mr. Arthur Edward Moore, leader of the Country-Progressive-Nationalist Party, is a New Zealander by birth. Born at Napier in 1876, he was educated at Akaroa, and the Melbourne Grammar School. In his youth lie settled in the Goulburn Valley, Victoria, and cultivated the vine. Then, having gained considerable agricultural knowledge, Mr. Moore turned his attention to more valuable avenues of primary production, and decided to move northward. In 1897 he set out for Queensland and settled in the Jondaryan Plains, and there engaged in the dairying industry. Eventually he became the owner of two cheese factories. Later the desire to serve the public in local government spheres became too great, and he entered the Rosalie Shire Council. He reached the chair and gained public confidence in his ability and integrity, so much so that in 11915 he was elected to be a member of the Parliament of Queensland. Since then he has been a regular member, representing Aubigny. His reputation for .stability has advanced him in the House, and for some time he acted as deputy-leader of the Country party, and in July, 1923, just before the opening of Parliament, he was made leader of his party. He did not allow this opportunity to pass, and, taking his duties seriously, he attended to the demands of his office. So good has been his work that to-day he is the Leader of the Opposition which defeated the Govern- ■ raent on Saturday.