The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1910. Australian Politics.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 1136, 17 March 1910, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1910. Australian Politics.

The nominations for the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth Parliament closed yesterday, but it was not necessary to wait until that date te ascertain who were going to be candidates. There are now two parties in Australian politics—tho Fusion Party, selfstyled Liberals, and led by Messrs Deakin and Cook; and the Labour Party, whose chief is Mr A. Fisher, •with Mr W. M. Hughes as an able first lieutenant. At tho present time tho Fusion Party has a- fairly large majority, but the Labour Party has never, since Its entry into pontics, lost ground at an election, and, judging by present indications, they aire not going to spoil their record this time. In electorates represented by tho strongest of tlie Liberals, the Labour men are making bold and confident bids for victory. Mr Dcakin's own seat at Ballarat is being seriously challenged; Mr Hume Cook, the Australian Natives' Association orator of Victoria, who is a Government Whip, is likely to lose his seat; and the East Sydney seat, vacated by Sir George Tteicl, whose majority at the last election was reduced from 4000 to 1000, is none too safe for the Fusionists. The La-

bour Party has a settled policy, which has never been lost sight of from the first. One of tlie main planks, is the Federal graduated land tax, which, like other planks of the Party, is always growing in favour with the Australian electors. For advocating this, the Labourites are being dubbed " Unificatkuiists," and when the Fusionists' speeches are sifted, there appears te be little else in them than, this abuse-the-other-side attitude. . It reminds us of the legal axiom: "If you have no case, abuse the other side." Defence is a big problem in Australia just now, and the Liberals are trying hard to make capital out of their earefully-prepaired scheme for naval and military efficiency. They charge the Labour Party with being Empirebreakers, who will "cut the painter" which links Australia with the Motherland. Here, as on most points, the Labour candidates are able to refute tho charge. Mr Hughes, in a policy speech delivered recently in Glebe (Sydney), said deliberately that such was not tho policy of his party. Their proposal with regard to the Australian Navy was that on the declaration of war it should pass to Imperial control. And Mr Hughes is a man to be believed. To give it only its just clue, it has to be said that the Labour Party has always been honest — it lias stuck to its platform and its pledges. The same cannot be said of the two parties forming the Fusionists. Both of them have wobbled, somersaulted, tacked, and backed, until it is difficult to follow their course. Tho Liberal Party now is sound on one national subject on which the Labour Party is weak, iwimely, the question of immigration. Labourites, with the narrowness .of trade uwionism, don't want more people. They say it is no use importing immigrants until tho laud is cut up for closer settlement. On other big questions—defence, railways, the Northern Territory, the relations between the Commonwealth, and the ( States, etc. —neither party can show

to tho unbiassed observer a better tease than the other. The Labour Party has a marvellous organisation, especially in the populous States, its . i issues are clear-cut, its men are tried, and its position a perfectly natural continuation of its general po- j licy. Tlie Fusionists are weak, be- ! cause they have only recently come together, after being deadly enemies for practically tho whole life of the Federation. They are opportunists, combined only against a common foe, ; the Labourites. The Fusion policy , is a compromise, and may or may j not stand together .through another ; Parliament. It is therefore likely ( that, although they may be returned to power for another term, it -will be on a reduced majority, and with ' restricted powers.