Grey River Argus MONDAY May 13, 1935. AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

Grey River Argus, 13 May 1935, Page 4

Grey River Argus MONDAY May 13, 1935. AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS.

The improvement in the Labour vote was far more marked at Saturday’s Australian, elections in the case of Queensland than in tliat of New South Wales. When Mr Lang attempted in 193'2 to put the poor before the moneylenders he calculated without his hosts. The reaction of the moneyed interests was to use the sack as a weapon in all directions; to tie-up credit; to start a run on the State Strings Bank, and otherwise to bring tilings to a halt, so that interest should be exacted without any cut. It must be held

a blunder on the part of the Labour Leader as a matter of

practical statesmanship that, instead of benefiting the poor, he instead got the backs of the rich op to such an extent that he was finally fired out of office himself I y an arbitrary act of the Governor. The consequences are many. Saturdav’s election result is one.

The anti-Labour administration could plume itself because the employing class had since undone much of which they did in order to make matters too hot for Mr Lang three years ago. They also show in unemployment a favourable contrast to 1932. On the strength of this they have gained another term with a majority quite as docile and nearly as large as before. Even if half a

dozen seats yet change hands, it will make no difference. What may be relied on to do so is what the compo. government does now. It will this time show its true colours, and the capitalistic elements are certain far more extensively to exploit the situation in all directions than in the last Parliament. It is not the furbishing of new nostrums, but a firm stand by his present policy that Mr Lang has to consider in order to obtain his opportunity at a ripe time. Events will tell in his favour, because what he first stood for is being already done very gradually in some respects. The banking and usury process is going to vindicate Mr Lang in the long run. Mr Stevens even bases his proposals on that process forcing the State further into the toils. The next time it will not be by the design of the usurers, but in spite of them, that a political change will have become inevitable.

Across the border, there is a different story, “Queensland ou Saturday gave Labour the greatest political triumph it. lias ever had in Australia. The Opposition, comprising two Parties, have been reduced nearly by half, and have few more than a quarter of the seats in the House. This contrasts most favourably with the position of the Opposition, in New South Wales, where seats have been won' from the Government, whereas Queensland Labour has not lost a sat, like Labour in New South Wales, and has won almost half of those held by the Opposition. The record of Labour in Queensland is easily the finest of any Australian political party. The population is not there concentrated mainly in one place, and the farming and other communities outside of the centres would sooner trust Labour than cither of the parties ruling New South Wales or the Commonwealth. The Federal Prime Minister, commenting in the Old Country, refers only to the New South Wales election, and he doubtless is wise in his own generation, but a decidedly greater mark of confidence is that which has been bestowed on the Queensland Government. It is safe to predict that Queensland will go

on making relatively the greater progress of the two States in the 1 ensuing three years, that it has been, not for thr\; years, but a generation past, during which Labour has guided its destiny with scarcely any break. There ar e faults admittedly in the New South Wales Labour movement, not only in its division, but in the lack of proportion and prudence which prevail at Sydney among a certain section. Otherwise, Saturday’s vote must hav r been sixty per cent, or more a Labour vote, instead of less than fifty per cent. The rural electors have been alienated by too great a preoccupation with city problems. and Labour no less than the other Parties must realise that a diversion of population away from the congested metropolis is practical polities, and Jin mere chimera. The Country Party help the Stevens Government to retain power by pretend ing to favour the country, bill until Labour ready takes up tic matter of a better balance ol population, capitalistic interest> will avail to prevent any othei administration from cheeking th< Sydney monopoly of considera tion. Conditions there amoni the poor are quite bad enough t< justify Air Lang’s concern fo. them, and will remain so as loni

as the State is overdeveloped at its head. The best example for Labour anywhere in Australia ithat of the movement in Queensland, which is the example that appeals to and inspires the aim of Labour in New Zealand.