The Dominion FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1925. THE NEW PARLIAMENT

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1925, Page 8

The Dominion FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1925. THE NEW PARLIAMENT

The constitution of the House of Representatives in the new Parliament is now to all intents and purposes finally determined. Material recounts possibly may be called for in one or two electorates, but the relative strength of parties will not be affected n ’"t“s\“fortun“teTat Selections in Westland and Lyttelton had each to be decided ultimately on the casting-vote of the returning officer. As the law stands, this official is placed on such occasions in a somewhat invidious position, and it would have been more satisfactory to have decided the final issue by lot. It seems desirab e that amending legislation should be brought down to provide that the disposal of the casting-vote the returning officei is required to give in P the case of a tie should be determined always in this way a Details of this kind, however, do not affect the broad result of \ the electton. In the volume of support concentrated on the Government there is a truly impressive expression of the public will. The Government following in the House, including one or two Independent Reformers, numbers 56, and Mr. Coates will have a clear majority ° £ 3 The weakness of the new Parliament obviously will be on the Opposition side. Now that the Labour-Socialists have lost both the P Westland and Lyttelton seats, the honour of being tlie official Opposition presumably will remain with the National Party. In order to make their title good, however, Mr. Forbes and his diminished following will have to enter into a working arrangement with Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Atmore. The sight of Mr. Forbes earning on as Leader of the Opposition while Sir Joseph Ward, actually or metaphorically, takes a back seat should be one of the interesting features of the new Parliament. ... ~ The outstanding result of the election is, of course, the very complete falsification of the vainglorious hopes and predictions of the extreme Labour Party. Nothing in the shape of a Labour debacle is disclosed, but the electors have entered a particularly emphatic and effective protest against the attitude and tactics of the extremists w o are endeavouring to set class against class and to transform our peaceful democracy into an'inferno of sectional cohflict. . It is now satisfactorily clear that these extremists are neither representative of Labour nor trusted by Labour. There is nothing mysterious about the defeat suffered by the Labour-Socialists. Any level-headed wage-earner is perfectly well able to understand that the policy they have developed is in many of its features diametrically opposed to the public interest, and not least to the interest of working Pe ° P The quality of the Labour-Socialists appears not only in their declared policy, but in their general attitude and tactics as a party. / It is quite enough to justify their condemnation and rejection by t e electors that they are closely identified with the agitators who have introduced and developed the “irritation strike which is doing so much to dislocate some branches of industry. If they really had the interests of the workers at heart, LabourSocialist politicians would not only refuse any association- with the promoters of “irritation strikes,” but would attack them root and branch. The extremists who stir up trouble on these lines evidently are not inspired by any desire to benefit the workers. They rely in the first instance on establishing a minority tyranny in trade unions, and their wrecking activities injure every worker in the community by raising his cost of living and in other ways. Labour-Socialist politicians in this country are very largely responsible for the fact that some of its biggest trade unions are dominated by men who are attempting not to improve the lot of the working people, but to undermine the existing order of industry and societv. These so-called representatives of Labour have never a word to say in protest against frivolous strikes and other outrageous attacks on the community by which wage'-earners and their families are often the chief sufferers. _ , , ,• Bearing these facts in mind, it is reasonable to hope and believe that the losses of the on- November 4 are only a beginning, and that as time goes on they will be still more decidedly rejected bv the working people from whom they are so little entitled to expect support. . The workers of the Dominion have never given better proof of their practical wisdom than in assisting, as a large proportion of them obviously did, to give the Coates Government its all but record majority. The extreme weakness of the Opposition side of the House is not a matter for unmixed congratulation, but the transfer of working-class support from the exponents of class, war to a leader who declares for honest team work in industry and in national affairs is definitely a move in the right direction and one from which much may be hoped.