Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1932. ALL EYES ON NEW SOUTH WALES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 8

Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1932. ALL EYES ON NEW SOUTH WALES

For the cause that tacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

"Electors of New South Wales, the eyes of the whole world are upon you!" So, one can imagine, the warning has gone, in these words or tlie equivalent, from New South Wales platforms during the past week. The statement, of course, is not wholly true. One cannot suppose that students of foreign affairs will sit up all night in the cafes of Ragusa or Stamboul awaiting news of Mr. Lang's defeat or victory, or that the fishctmen of Brittany or the peasants of the Ukraine are giving even a thought to the political death grapple between Mr. Lang and Mr. Lyons. It is true to say, however —with full realisation of the ease with which one slip§ into superlatives— that there has never been an election in Australia —indeed, one might extend the statement to cover all colonies and Dominions —that has been followed with such keen and widespread interest and anxiety. The whole oC Australia and New Zealand is watching the New South Wales contest very closely. South Africa and Canada are interested, and so is New York. And London is giving the election more attention than it has ever bestowed upon an oversea political fight. The reason is that so much more is at stake than in previous appeals to the people. This is not a fight between Libera' ! sm and Labour, between Conservatism and 1 .eraliern, or between a Coalition and the Labour Party, in which ordinary political issues of Socialism (real or alleged), land settlement or taxation are involved. It is a fight between Constitutionalism and what amounts to rebellion; between sober and frenzied public finance; between a national outlook and a national programme and class legislation and class patronage; between political decency and shameless class favouritism; between' common action by Australian States and the Commonwealth and isolated action by a section of tho New South Wales people. The ultimate issue may be peace or civil war.

In the history of Australian politics there have been many leaders of strange and even eccentric ■ personality, who inspired both devotion and intense dislike. Mr. J. T. Lang may be described as the most extraordinary of all. Ho is to-day the best-abused and most hated man in Australia, but we shall not know until after to-day whether the devotion to him that undoubtedly exists is sufficient to outweigh that hostility in his own State. His veracity has been impugned over and over , again. He is the pattern of a demagogue, I appealing to crude class feeling and perpetrating inconsistencies that are laughable. He has well-nigh wrecked the Slate finances in what he claims to be the interests of the workers, but in doing so has done grave injury to that very class. He encourages the belief that money is all in the hands of the fat financier, and ignores the immense accumulation from the savings of small investors, thousands of whom, depositors in the State Savings Banks, suffered cruelly as a result of his policy. His close friends in politics are the leaders of the Trades Hall junta, who are frankly hostile to the British connection, and openly Communistic in their political and economical aims, and allegiance to this gang he attempted, so long as he had power, to force upon all unionists. He distributed jobs among thisv junta, and subsidised a Labour Aveekly with undeserved advertisements. Nothing more ironical could well be imagined than a journal controlled by Mr. Jock Garden publishing propaganda to attract tourists. Scandal from the Lang administration forms quite a cloud over Sydney. On top of all this reckless finance, blatant demagogy and shocking favouritism, he has quarrelled with the Federal Government —breaking his own promises to that Government and the laws it had to make to discipline him —to a point from which the possibility of civil Avar can be descried. But there is method in his madness. His aim is to be dictator of a Soviet-like State.

All this gives only a mild picture of the amazing condition to which "Laugism" has brought New South Wales, and the extraordinary bitterness of feeling that has been aroused. It should be borne in mind that Mr. Lang leads only a section of Labour. The Federal Labour Party, which he and his followers wrecked, has declared against him. Mr. Lyons and Mr. Theodore have denounced him in the strongest terms, and Mr. Lyons has made it clear that if Mr. Lang is returned and rebels against Federal authority again he will enforce the law. Where, then, does Mr. Lang's strength lie? It lies in the willingness of many to believe that Mr. Lang can keep up wages, in the distrust and hatred of what is called the money power, and in dislike of the Commonwealth Government's invasion of State rights. But perhaps Mr. Lung's greatest strength among a certain class —paradoxical as it may seem —is his own personality. This crude and shifty trafficker in class war may be repellent to many, but to others he is a saviour of society. There is no doubt that he has a compelling personality; New Zealanders who have listened to him "over the air" will admit it. To many thousands he is a St. George attacking the dragon of soulless finance and ruthless capitalism, and an equally heroic defender of their weekly pay-envelope. It remains to be seen whether these considerations are sufficient to outweigh all his political and economic crimes, whether, for example, the Civil Service will vote for him again. It may bo too much to say that it is unthinkable that he should be returned, but one may say—bearing in mind that the public here learns far more about his crimes thnn about his popularity —that it seems highly improbable. Certain it is that the defeat of the Government that is letting fresh air into the noisome rooms of State would be, for Australia as well as New South Wales, a calamity of which no one would 'predict the final results.