Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4000 DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1914. AX INTERESTING POLITICAL SITUATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9833, 26 June 1914, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4000 DAILY. FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1914. AX INTERESTING POLITICAL SITUATION.

The Commonwealth of Australia is in the tiirocs of a general election. Although tho Governor-General has not yet prorogued and dissolved its Parliament, the decision has boon come 10 and both Houses are bointr sent to the country. The double dissolution provided for by tho Constitution, in the ovent oi a deadlock arising between the two Houses, has been brought about by tho Senate's rejection of a Very simple, yet far reaching measure, twice introduced by tho Libera! Government, twice passed by the House of Representatives, and twice rejected by the Senate; tho measure in question abolishing the preference to Unionists established in connection with the Government Service by the hue Labour Government. With a majority of one only in the House of Representatives, and with more than throe fourths of tho Senators against them in i!o Upper Chamber, Mr Cook (tho Federal Prime Minister) and his colleagues have found it practically impossible to pass legislation of any kind. The Labourites, forming the majority in the Senate, were in hopes that the Government would hare been forced to the country without a dissolution of hot Si Chambers. But, emboldened apparently by their continual floutings of the Government they wont just a. little too far, and, by rejecting the Preference Prohibition Bill for tho secon 'J time, gave Mr Cook his right to appeal; for the double dissolution they would have avoided if possible. It is a curious J commentary upon tho provisions and I safeguards laid down by some of the! wisest minds in Australia, prior to the Federation, that the Australian Senate, which was to be the States House, specially charged witli the safeguarding of the rights and privileges of the States themselves, should have developed into a purely partisan Chamber, dominated by men whose chief concern now appears to be the unification j of tho State, and tho centralism-1 tion of all forms of Go-! vernment in tho Commonweal! t Capital. Tho referenda proposals, which the Senators asked tha Governor-Gene-ral to submit at tho next elections, would, if adopted, rob the Governments of tho several States of all semblance of power, and would hand over to the Commonwealth the control of servict* which, for all sufficient reasons, it w.v desired should be retained by the States themselves. It is not surprising, thenvfore, to and that the requests have been refused. The refernda proposals were not submitted by the Government. and it would have been xanta-' mount to an expression of want of con- •; fidence in his advisers had his Excel- j iency acted otherwise. In appealing to i th« elector* the other day, Mr Cool } r«ry properly pointed out that the is- j

sues before the electors were very simple. Tho people of Australia Lave to decide whether they are prepared to hand themselves over body and soul to a Government bent upon introducing tho most objectionable forms of Socialism into tb" lifo of tho community; or whether thev prefer to proceed tlio safer, more constitutional and self reliant linos which Liberalism runs. If, in tho appeal to tho country, the Labourites prove successful, we have a very fair indication of what may bo expects! in the exjx rience of New South Wales, under ii,> Labour Government, and of the Commonwealth itself under the Fisher Administration. Labourites, in this country, and elsewhere, have repeatedly tho trustworthiness of Labour Governments. and corruption, were supposed to l»e im|>ossib!e under Labour rule. Australia's experience. shows that, with Labour in office, both are rife. It is the present Australian Prime Minister's boast that no Government side-door-jobs aro obtainable under his administration. Speaking recently in the House of Kopresentn'ives, Mr Cook said. "When this Government took office it bolted and barred al! side-doors. They were open before but they are closed now." . . Mr Fisher let contracts without calling fpr tenders, contracts which could not l>o fulfilled, contracts of a doubtful character, without any .sueiruards. His Government required n> specifications, no penalties, no deposits, no anything— except a private arrang-u niem, made through a side door! Tinjibe was a bitter one. but none the 1« truthful. When the Labour Party cam<» into office in Australia in 1:*1 f it was to have cleaned up all the a!Augean stables. In whatever condition it found them, they wore lei: hopelessly filthy. There was a satur nalia of expenditure during Mr Fisher's term of office, probably unprecedented in tho history of any country in the British Kmpire. In tliree yearn tne expend. turo more than doubled, rising from seven to fifteen millions; tho same thrng happened under the Labour Government in New South Wales, where a surplus of 1*980,70!) bequeathed to the Labour Government by Mr Wade, the Liberal Premier in 1910, was turned into a deficit of i'l.oOO.OOi) in 1913. thus poing to the had to tho extent of two and a half millions, although tho revenue rose from thirteen to sixteen millions in three years. On the other hand tho expenditure by the State ad-

valued during tho samo period from seventeen to twenty-six millions, thus risiug at an average rate of threo millions per annum, and, to make matters worso, tho Now South Wales Government, although pledged to substantially reduce borrowing, actually increased the State's annual loan indebtedness by over 4<K) per cent. This excessive expenditure on the part of both Governments was accompanied by a reckless prodigality, whore the Labour Party was concerned, that can only Ik* described as political debauchery. Although this sort of thing ceased in the Commonwealth when the Liberal Government came into office, it is a curious but nevertheless undeniable, fact that, under the Libera! Administration, tho effective wage has steadily increased, this fact being brought out in the figures supplied by the Commonwealth Statistician. Another matter which may well influence the coming Federal elections is the attitude of the Labour Party itself, in refusing to recognise any class of workers outside of the trades unions, which really form a secret caucus dominating the Federal Labour Party from tho outside. Mr Cook mny not greatly benefit his position by his present appeal to the country, but lie will have the consolation of knowing that lie has put up a good tight and that lie has done his best 111 tho interests of the country generally. It will, however, bo a poor day for Australia should he fail.