THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1930 THE N.S.W. ELECTION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 238, 26 September 1930, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1930 THE N.S.W. ELECTION

Tho State general election that is to take place nest month in New South Wales should provide a fair indication as to whether the people of the Commonwealth in the mass are fully alive to the crisis that has arisen in the financial and, consequently, in tho industrial affairs of the country. The position in this State, indeed, in all the States, is much the same as that in which the Commonwealth as a whole finds itself. There is a very heavy load of both external and internal debt upon which interest and sinking fund have to be found, while the prices of exportable products are low and the national income arising from them very much shrunken. Unemployment is rife, spending money scarce, and local industries pinched both for want of capital and for want of customers. Taxation is already cast on a high scale, while it is absolutely necessary, if faith is to be kept with State creditors, that it should be further increased. These are all factors in the case with which we are not altogether unacquainted in this country, but in the Mother State of the Commonwealth the difficulty in dealing with them is much magnified by the existence of a strong Labour Party that is largely under Communistic influence—perhaps more so than in any other State. In a thoroughly statesmanlike policy speech the State Premier, Mr. Bavin—a New Zealander born, by the way —has set out the task that lies before the people of Australia if they are going to redeem the position and maintain their credit among the nations of the world. After a comprehensive review of the financial position as affecting both Commonwealth and States, he said that the issue for the electors to decide was whether or not they were prepared to give the Government authority to carry out the agreement reached at the Melbourne Premiers’ Conference. Under that agreement the States have undertaken to cooperate with the Federal Government in a vigorous effort to restore outside confidence in the country’s solvency, and so also to revive industry and commerce and place the people upon a new and sounder footing for a fresh start. To this agreement, involving first of all the balancing of budgets, all the State Premiers have subscribed, each Government being left to find its own way of carrying it out. So, as Mr. Bavin put it: “The policy I have outlined is not in any way a New South Wales party policy, but an Australian policy. For the first time in our political history I take my stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with the Labour Federal Prime Minister,

with the Federal Labour Government, and with the Labour Govern, ments of Victoria and South Australia in asking the electors to endorse a policy to which all the Governments of Australia, Labour and non-Labour alike, are solemnly committed.”

As against this declaration we have Mr. Lang, the leader of the State Labour Party, coming forward, endeavouring to persuade the people that the crisis is one of altogether artificial manufacture. He and those siding with him aver that it has issued from London financiers anxious to strangle Australian industries and bent on reducing the Australian worker permanently to lower wages and a lower standard of living. Vague promises are made that all the threatened trouble will be easily averted if only Labour is restored to jjower in the State Legislature. Defiance is cast at the London money market, and assurance given that all the funds that are required for financing Labour’s schemes for unlimited happiness will be found locally—how is, of course, a matter of no moment. Perhaps the most disturbing feature of the Labour attitude in the election is, however, to be seen in the fact that two members of the Labour Federal Cabinet, pledged to the agreement outlined, have made their appearance in support of the Lang representations. What sort of embarrassment all this must occasion Mr. Scullin, the Federal Prime Minister, now in London endeavouring to re-establish Australia’s reputation for good faith, may be readily imagined. There is still less difficulty in conceiving what the effect will be should the electors of New South Wales, by any evil chance, be lured away by the empty promises that are being dangled before them—promises even more empty, if that is possible, than those that, some twenty-one months ago, swept so many electors off their feet into deep water in this country.