FEDERAL ELECTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 81, 7 April 1910, Page 7

FEDERAL ELECTION.

TOTAL NUMBER OF ELECTORS ON THE ROLL. By Teteßrsph.— Press Association.— Copyright. MELBOURNE, 6th April. The total number of electors on the Federal rolls for tho forthcoming elections is 259,891. In the course of a manifesto to the electors of Hume, Sir William L,yne says, inter alia, "after nearly thirty years' representation of the Hume electorate, 1 cannot renounce the democratic and humanitarian principles which I have always advocated. I seek reelection on tho same platform as hitherto, and I can truthfully say that my aims and views have undergone no change since last election. If, then, 1 am opposed by those who formerly fought under the same banner, it is they who have turned their political coats, no K t .*' , ln , the history of Australian political life the present condition of things is unparalleled, inasmuch as lauding men have sacrificed the principles which should be held dear to anyone who has his reputation to sustain. Politicians whose piinciplcs have been for half a lifetime opposed, and whose lives should bo guided by those principles, have joined together in the most barefaced manner, and their action is a betrayal of the trust reposed in them by the electors, as neither side had any authority from the country to desert £ S P" n "P. les - The party headed by Mr. Doaktn and Xtl.at by Mr. Joseph Oook were elected for an entirely different purpose, and the mandate in each case was quite distinct. Of many of the membeis the present Prime Minister but a short time ago referred in the following scathing terms':— 'At the present time the right lion, member (meaning bir George Eeid) hag behind him I only the wreckage of half a dozen old I sections. He has behind him the wreck- I age of the free importing party, the wreckage of the individualistic "party, tho wreckage of the anti-Socialistic party, nnd the wreckage of the coloured labour party. All are to be found on that fide of the House. On the Opposition benclies are clustered the wreckage of the parties that have failed in the House. Wo caniiot be associated with reactionaries.' Again, when reminded by a member of the wreckage that the fiscal question was done with, Mr. Deakin al*o said, 'wo can never be douo with the fiscal question when thero is a party which refuses to accept the settled policy of this countiy and plots against it.' "