A LESSON FROM AUSTRALIA.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13714, 22 April 1910, Page 6

A LESSON FROM AUSTRALIA.

Despite the assertion of Mr W. M. Hughes, quoted by our Australian correspondent, that the Labour Party was no better organised for the recent Commonwealth elections than tho Fusion Party, there is abundant evidence that he was wrong. Probably he wished to claim a greater triumph for the principles of Labour than for tbe machinery by which those principles wero propagated. But it is clear that making all allowance for the vigour with which the Labour candidates fought the election, their victory would have been far less decisive had it not been for the splendid organisation behind them. Mr McGowen, the Leader of the New South Wales Labour Party, admitted this in a speech directly after tho elections Something was said about the Labour Party's comparative lack 'f funds, but against this must he set tho advantage they enjoyed from the existing machinery of the lahoar unions, "which provided the basis for the wider organisation required in an election campaign embracing all Australia. Mr Deakin summed up the position so far as his party was concerned by pointing out that it must not in future depend upon merely f-x----temporary preparations just prior to a contest. "The education of the indif- " ferent or ill-informed requires to be " undertaken in advance, and system- " atically pursued." This is one of the lessons that the Opposition Party in New Zealand may learn from the Australian elections. They must go into battle equipped to the V**st button, and the time for beginning to prepare for the contest is now, and not twelve months hence.