"BLACK LISTS."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 11

"BLACK LISTS."

» SINISTER PROPOSAL.

N.S.W. REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN. IMPORTANCE OF SECRECY. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 22. One of the most remarkable developments of the Referendum campaign has been a plan adopted by the State Labour Party Conference this week at the suggestion of Mr. Garden. After deploring the absence of scrutineers and discussing various methods of inducing the electors to vote "No," it was decided that a petition against the Reform Bill be drafted, and that copies be supplied at every polling booth to give the electors a' chance of expressing their views effectually. The pretext put forward in support of this scheme was that it would enable the Labour party to check the number of votes recorded on the "No" side and thus to some extent make up for the absence of scrutineers. But what Mr. Garden and his friends did not mention to the delegates was that the signatures to this petition would also, by a simple process of subtraction, enable them to discover who had voted "Yes," and would thus supply them with a "black list" of "traitors" which thej'could use for their own purposes later on. The petition is thus a cunning trick; devised for the purpose of securing the despotic ascendancy - of the Langite leaders over their party and enabling them to enforce "disciplinary measures" against rebels at their own discretion. Would be Illegal. Of course, this has all been pointed out, with great emphasis by the Nationalists. As the "Sun" puts it: "Any person who is stupid enough to sign his name to any such document, no matter which way he votes or what party he follows, has put down, in black and white, for whatever purposes it may be used afterwards by the politicians, a statement which may be used against him for ever." But, fortunately, this petition scheme is not only dangerous, but illegal. The law officers of the Crown have declared officially that such a petition signed at the election booths would be a direct interference with the secrecy of the ballot. The "Sydney Morning Herald" has quoted the State Parliamentary Elections Act, which makes any form of intimidation, an offence, and includes under this term "The action of any person who impedes, prevents or otherwise interferes with the exercise of the franchise by the elector"; while the Referendum Act of 1930 makes it an offence to publish or distribute "any document" intended to interfere or likely to interfere with any elector in the expression of his views at a Referendum; and at the same time requires that the returning officer and his subordinates "shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of voting at that election." Assurance to Electors. The Attorney-General, at the close of his condemnation of the proposed petition as a breach of the law, has assured the electors that "whatever course may be pursued by the inner group of the Trades Hall on the holding of the Referendum, the Government will undertake to secure for them the secrecy of the ballot, and also complete freedom from victimisation." This statement has worked the "Labour* Daily" up to an , almost inarticulate pitch of fury. It has now taken to denouncing every action of the National Government as "Hitlerism." The refusal to appoint scrutineers was "Hitlerism," and now the pronouncement of the AttorneyGeneral that the proposed petition would be illegal is "Hitlerism" as well. But I fancy that a great many of the .professed followers of Mr. Lang will be relieved to learn on such high authority that Mr. Garden's scheme for violating ; the secrecy of the ballot by black-listing ; all rebels is "against both State and ' Commonwealth law" and must, therefore,

be abandoned.