THE REFERENDUM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15900, 11 April 1912, Page 6

THE REFERENDUM.

The cablegram which wo publish this morning stating that the Federal Government will re-submit the referenda proposals which were rejected twelve months ago on the same day as the next general election is of more than passing interest to the people of ‘this country. It will be remembered that the proposals were put before the electors last year, after passing both Federal Houses of Parliament, and that both were rejected by largo majorities. One proposal was to make the Federal Arbitration Court the supreme court of appeal in industrial matters throughout tho Commonwealth, and the other was to empower Parliament to nationalise any industry which it had declared, by resolution of both Houses, to be a monopoly. As wo pointed out at the time, tho result of the referenda was to load the Labour Party until two planks which the electors had rejected, and it says much for the courage of the party that instead of jettisoning these planks it is preparing to again submit them to the electors. The opposition to them went a long way towards consolidating the forces arrayed against Labour, and at the next general elections these forces will have the advantage of fighting proposals which they have already once defeated. By active political work they will make the referendum a trial of party strength, a thing it was never intended to be, in the hope that by associating the Labour candidates with the discredited proposals they may succeed in defeating both. Whatever the outcome may be, it Is certain that the determination of the Federal Labour Government will give much additional interest to the approaching elections.