AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15016, 10 July 1914, Page 8

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(FROM OCX OW.V CORBESrOXDENT.) POLITICS.

SYDNEY, July 3. Especial interest attached in advance to the pre-sessional speech delivered this week by the Premier of New South Wales on account of the aporoaching **d Federal elections. It depends very of much upon the electors in this State, cc with its preponderance of representas- tion in the Commonwealth Houso of d- Representatives, whether Liberalism or ;i- Labour will havo a majority in the next s. Federal Parliament, and the nature of it the policy speech for the coming sesie siou by the Labour Premier of this c- Stato was looked forward to as a posit sible source, of ammunition for the if Federal campaign, while waiting for s- the Prime Minister's declaration of -s policy and the counter declaration by se the Leader of the Federal Labour party ;e (Mr Andrew Fisher). Some people had r - hoped for mention by Mr Holman of " avowed continued differences of opinion d between Federal and State Labour > t legislators on matters concerning which v Federal members have sought to en- • large the scope of the Commonwealth '' Legislature by a curtailment of State powers. But Mr Holman's speech 0 proved remarkably mellow aud mild. It s consisted of little more than the repee tition in v more cautious way of things * announced before, and was largely t made up of a setting out of the order v of precedence of a considerable number .- of public works, ijicludiiig much railway o construction, with the character of V* those works broadly outlined. This was done in a manner calculated to satisfy B country as well as city demands, and t there was at least as much of argui ments of business prudence as of caps tivating promises. Outside of renewed mention of proposed extensions of State industrial enterprises, there was in the speech very littlo food for acute contention. The Leader of the Opposition in tho State Parliament (Mr Wade), in his comments, seems to be dissatisfied with tho speech mostly on account of its non-contentious character. He finds * that Mr Holman has greatly modified -.* t his originally announced scnemes coini ing within the category of "wild cat" » Socialism. Reference must, however, » be made to tho utter absence of meni tion in the Premier's speech to the mat- * ter of the abolition of tho Legislative ■ Council. This is tho first plank in tho : State Labour platform, and in counexion with it Mr Holman has been subjected to very sharp criticism by ■ tljo leaders of tho Political Labour League, both for neglect to givo effect to this plank as well as for his refusal to give the League a say in the appointment to the Council of men who can be relied upon to vote in that Chamber for its*extinction. There aro in Mr Holman's silence on this subject the possibilities of a serious row in the Labour party.in New South Wales. However, it seems that, with a dorotion to the broad Labour cause, which Liberals aro being asked to imitate, matters of internal dissension aro being put aside for a big "pull together" heave to make Labour supremo in th© national Parliament.

IMMIGRATION. Ono of tho most notable annc.ineements made by the Premier of New South Wales in outlining his policy for the coming session was in regard to immigration. It was to the effect that i tho Government had decided upon a now policy, and it must be a littlo flat- < tering to New Zealanders to know that, as Mr Holman said, this new policy is on lines- in which your Dominion set an example. Under it the Government * will seek secure in tho Old Country desirable lads of good health and reputation, aged from 16 to 20 years, who will be brought out as assisted imnii- j grants, and trained in farm work, to s the end that they may become indepeu- ' dent farmers here. In deciding upon \ this policy, the Government has been ] influenced by circumstances in Great , Britain as well as by local exigencies. ' It has been found that the dram upon Great Britain in recent years for agri- ( culturists and agricultural labourers desired in new countries has been so great that the supply approaches exhaustion. Also, it is found that Government assistance to immigrants has -j done littlo more than bring here people who swell tho already too heavy proportion of city dwellers. At the same -j timo, labour organisations have been ■ complaining, to the extent of most - severe condemnation of the , Labour Government, about Government funds *- being employed to entice to Australia • people who become needy competitors for employment in towns, to the great anxiety of unionists, who fear that the newcomers may help to break down the embankment of restricted supplies of workmen and organised pressure by which wages have been forced to their present high level. Mr Holman Btates S far as New South Wales is concerned, the -policy of assisted immigra- j tion will be confined almost entirely to r young fellows of the class mentioned, * and that there will be a steady refusal * to assist people who will help only to build up the population of the large towns. " VOTING EXPERIMENT. J Although it may not be able to boast t. of astonishing enterprise in other dire©- n tions, the island State of Tasmania must be credited with bold experiments r< in connexion with Parliamentary elections. It was the -first of the States a to try the system of proportional re- h presentation, in what is called the B Hare-Clark variation of it. Having grown tired' of that, Tasmania pro- c< poses to try a variation of French a "list system. Candidates are to be tc set out on the ballot papers in party lists. The proportion of seats obtained li by a party in any electorate will de- si pend-on the proportion of votes polled by all the candidates bearing its name n* in that electorate. The number of tr members returned -by each electorate H will be governed by the relation which all the votes polled in it bear to the ac total vote cast in the whole State, vi

There are five constituencies at present, each returning six members, but under the Bill which proposes the introduction of the "list" system some might return more than six members, and some less. One at least would have to 6end seven, because to leave a working margin, the membership of the Legislative Assembly is to bo increased from thirty to thirty-one. It has been promptly pointed out in the criticisms that the seemingly fair minded proposal will really have the effect of increasing the political power of the cities, where Labour is strong, at the expense of the country districts, where Labour is weak. The number' of members would, not be definitely fixed on a population basis, but would depend on the number of votes actually cast. If polling day were wet or fell at an awkward time of the year, there would probably be a comparatively small poll in the country districts, while the towns would remain virtually unaf- i fected. In any event, Labour would always stand to gain without risk of losing through any special circumstances. A prominent feature of tho scheme is the prohibition oi cross voting. An elector will have to cast his throe votes for candidates belonging. to one party as shown on the list, unless there is a party with fewer than three candidates standing, when he can vote for, one or two as the case might be. One of the strongest objections to systems of proportional voting is the. complication of machinery which does not allow many electors to understand properly what they are doing. However, those who have serious misgivings .about the proposed innovation are

somewhat reassured by the thought that in little Tasmania not much harm can be done by the failure of such an experiment. CARGO P*n°' THING. Some astounding figures are given as the result of investigations by merchants.into their losses through the broaching of cargo. A prominent member of the New South Wales Ch-iniber of Commerce estimates the loss as far as the merchants of this State are concerned at £'100.000 for a year. This is said to cover only actual known Silfering, and not damage caused inirectly as the result of rough handling and broken cases. Although at is difficult to determine at which point the broaching is done—whether in the packing, in transit, or on the wharf at either end—Sydney has a peculiarly bad reputation as the scene of pilfering. Besides clamouring for more efficient legislation so that prosecutions may become more deterrent, merchants here are giving attention to a proposal to secure the co-operation of the unions of waterside workers and carters and the Government in the interests of Sydney as a shipping port. LAND nrNOER.

If there are over your way people who believe that it is easy enough to get over here blocks of good lands for agricultural purposes it will serve a useful purpose to point to a typical example of unsatisfied land hunger in this State. Applications were invited by the Lands Department by the end of June for six homestead farming blocks in different parts of tho State. No fewer than 1001 applications' were received. For two 500 'acre farms in the south-west there were 742 applications, while for two farms in the western district 230 persons applied. Yet Now South Wales is credited with being a placo where it is far easier to get a block of land for farming than iv Victoria. Jt has for years worried Governments in Victoria to discover ways of checking the loss to the State of many most desirable young men trained thoroughly in agricultural work on their fathers' farms who find it impossible to get a decent block in Victoria when the time comes for them to make a start on their own account. True, we have still in a virgin state largo tracts of land suitable for agriculture, and we have plenty of men ready to do rough pioneering work, but the trouble is in getting produce to market on account of the lack of railway communication. Even where railways exist there is in this State all round congestion and inadequacy, of service, which means .serious losses for the nroducers. One can understand, therefore, that there is a sort of wild rush when there is a chance of getting a farming block which has attached to it a moderately hopeful prospect of sending wheat, etc. to the coast. *