STEVENS' RULE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 290, 8 December 1932, Page 11

STEVENS' RULE.

BENEFICIAL EFFECT.

RECOVERY FROM LANGISM. AIR or CONFIDENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 2. The State Parliamentary session is nearing its close and already our lawmakers, recognising that the time is short, are expediting their movements, and in sporting parlance, "sprinting for the tape." In one day last week no fewer than eleven bills were dealt with, and in spite of the obstinate efforts of the Langites to obstruct public business, a very considerable amount of valuable work has been done. The Moratorium Bill has 'been amended in some material features, but it has been necessary to apply the closure to keep matters, moving. The other day the Langites in the Upper House left in a body as a protest against the use of the "gag." But no one takes their attitude seriously, for Mr. Lang and his friends apparently hold that no one who owes money—whether to a bank or ,a private capitalist or a foreign bondholder or a landlord—should ever be compelled to pay it, and that all legislation dealing with finance should be shaped accordingly..

Leichhardt By-election. A certain amount of political interest has been aroused outside the House by the prospects of the by-election at Leichhardt, the constituency vacated by the death of Mr. Olde, one of the Labour "stalwarts,", who had won the respect of friends and opponents alike. Mr. Lamaro, who was Attorney-General under Mr. Lang, is the candidate selected by his part}', and he will almost certainly win the seat. For the U.A.P. is hardly likely to run a candidate, the A.L.P. carries little weight in the suburban areas, and the Communists are, in this instance, a negligible factor. But Mr. Lamaro's return will make practically no difference to the political balance of power.

Healthy Signs. As the year nears its close the beneficial effects of the new order of things introduced by the advent of the Stevens Government are making themselves felt slowly but surely. In the city, the recent sale of several valuable properties and the increasing rate at which money is being turned over and invested are distinctly healthy signs. The ration of unemployment is falling and a special effort is being made by the Government to provide work for a large number of people before the Christmas holidays begin. The increase of the subsidy payable to the friendly societies (from £50,000 to f03,000 for the year), though coupled with certain conditions, is distinctly a popular move, and the efforts of the Langites to represent it as a delusive trick have been unavailing. Unravelling The Tangle. On the whole the general impression produced by the recent legislative and administrative activities of the Government is that it is doing everything in its power to straighten out the tangle of public finance to help the unemployed and to restore prosperity. It is less than six' months since it took office, confronted, as the "Sydney Morning Herald" has said, "by chaotic conditions in a Treasury virtually bankrupt, a taxation office which had barred its doors and stopped doing business, a public service extensively demoralised, and a spread of unemployment and industrial stagnation which menaced the whole structure of the State." Taking all the circumstances into account, even Mr. Stevens' enemies ought to admit that he and his colleagues have done their duty .well.