MIXED POLITICS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 35, 9 August 1913, Page 9

MIXED POLITICS

IN NEW SOUTH WALES FOUR PARTIES FOR SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS. Mr. C. J. Parr, Mayor of Auckland, who passed through Wellington on his return from an annual holiday he has taken in New South Wales and Queensland, was much entertained while on the other side by the mixed politics of the Mother State. “There will be four parties,”' he told a Post l reporter to-day, "canvassing for the votes of the be-, wildered electors in the General Election due in September. In addi>< tion to the regular parties al-> ready represented, the Labour Party—a power with a precarious majority—and. the Liberal Party—not over-enthusiastic-ally supported—there are two others to complicate the already awkward situation.

“The first of the new parties is the National Progressive Party, led by Mr. Beeby, an able lawyer, who seceded and resigned from the Labour Ministry because he claimed an independence of thought and action he could not get under caucus rule. The National Progressives are strongly opposed to the excessive waste of time and effort caused by the party system, and are planking their platform with a strong! advocacy of the Elective Executive system. They are meeting with a good deal of support, I observed, because many people are heartily sick of the incessaht and senseless wrangling of the New South Wales Parliament under party control. I noticed over there a decidedly increasing tendency to regard the Elective Executive as something a| good deal more practical than a mere debating school proposition. “The other party—the fourth—is the Country Party. This is, indeed, a newt force in Australian politics and one that will have to be reckoned with in the near future. It represents a very complete farmers’ organisation. The annual conference, held last month, was attended by over 450 delegates from every, part of New South Wales. The Country Party also favours the Elective Executive, but - makes its main objective in decentralisation. The farmer in Newi South Wales has had a very bitter experience of the folly of concentrating everything in Sydney and making it the one and only port of New South Wales. Haulage on the railways of farmers’goods inward and outward hfts to go over hundreds and thousands of uu’laa before it gets to its destination, and the inevitable result of it all going ovex practically one Bet of rails is continuous delays, innumerable petty impediments to trade, and constaht irritation, It sometimes happens that farmers’ pro-, duee rots before it finally gets to Sydney, and the aggregate loss from the centralised system must annually bo enormous. The farmers are now up ini arms and insist on other ports being opened up, with proper railway communication with the interior, so that they can get their goods to tide waten within a reasonable time. These farmers will have none of either of the present parties in Parliament, and are going to see what they can do for themselves. The position they have taken up is viewed with some uneasiness by the Liberals, who fear a splitting in. votes on which they had previously counted. What the final result will be in the September elections is hard to say, but tilings do not appear to bode well for either of the present parties. The whole country appears to be tired of the Labour Government, which is regarded as hopelessly incompetent, wasteful, and mischievous. During their short term of office—about 2£ years—in very prosperous times in Australia, the Labour Ministry lias brought a surplus of £1,000,000 to a deficit of £1,250,000 in round figures. They are up against it-, and it is a question of retrench on increase taxes another degree. Altogether, the outlook is bad for Mr. Holman and his colleagues.”