Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1929. THE QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 141, 16 May 1929, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1929. THE QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.

The unexpected happened in Queensland on Saturday when the general election resulted in the defeat of the McCormack Ministry, which with its predecessors in the continuous Labour Administration the Ityan-Theodore-Gillies Ministries has held Queensland under Labour Government since June, 1915. The uneven distribution of the enrolments throughout the whole electorate, comprising 72 constituencies, with a voting strength in each ranging from 9914 electors doAvn to 2052, the highest numbers being located in electorates returning Nationalists or Progressives and the lower Labour members, seemed to preclude the possibility of a Labour defeat with the consequent return to office of the Opposition. That probably accounted for Mr McCormack’s confident prediction, on the eve of the election, that his party would be again triumphant at the polls. But, viewed in almost any light, the Labour Government’s record was bad, covering a long period of mismanagement of the public finances, and of maladministration; of oppressive taxation and harassing legislation, phenomenal unemployment, lessened production and a decline in factory output; enormous railway deficits and heavy losses in most of the State enterprises started by .the Labour Socialist Government. Although in potential wealth the richest of the Australian States, Queensland, under the Labour regime, has made less material progress than the other five States of the Commonwealth. Taking a twenty-six year period covered by the years 1901-1914 and 1914-27 Queensland, which was leading the rest of the Commonwealth in the percentage increase in production during the first thirteen year period, under non-Labour Socialist rule, has ftdlen very much behind the other States during the latter period, as will be seen from the following tables: —

PRODUCTION UNDER NONSOCIALIST RULE. Rest of Queensland. ComVealth. £ £ 1901 • ... 16,933,000 97,652,000 1914 ... 38,342,000 176,577,000 Increase . 126 p.c. 75 p.c. UNDER SOCIALIST RULE. Rest of Queensland. Coni’weajth. £ £ 1914 ... 38,342,000 171,577,000 1927 ... 54,418,000 393,182,000 Increase . 42 p.c. 123 p.c.

The percentage increases are thus seen to be reversed, although Queensland in 1927 had increased its population by over 300,000 as compared with 1914. Nor this all. The proportion of the population engaged in factory production per 10,000 inhabitants increased in all the States during the 1914-27 period except Queensland. The New South Wales increase was 154, that of Victoria 146, of Tasmania 123, South Australia 107, and Western Australia 85. But Queensland’s declined by 66 per 10,000 inhabitants, and, as a matter of fact, Queensland, under the Labour Administration, had 'a greater number of unemployed in proportion to its population than any other State and more people living on the “dole,” which Queensland alone, of all the States, had found it necessary to introduce, the payments on account of which have increased year by year from £165,243 in 1923-24 to £412,220, in 1927-28, with total payments during the five-year period amounting to £1,391,262.

EFFECT ON UNEMPLOYMENT

Under a Labour Government, with Labour laws dominating every department of industry, and the State as the greatest employer of all, it might reasonably be assumed that the conditions of employment would be such that industrial disputes would be few and far between, yet over 130 strikes were recorded in Queensland during the last five years — one every fortnight, some of them being directed against the Government itself. There were at least three strikes on the Government railways, which, by the way, have piled up a loss of over fourteen millions during as many years under the Labour Government, and a big strike in the building trades, in which the Government was concerned as well as the master builders. The fact that the Premier, Mr McCormack, had to side with the employers against the men led to some talk in Labour circles of a movement to displace him from the leadership of the party, and Mr McCormack certainly showed more backbone in resisting the excessive demands of Labour than any of his predecessors, which probably accounts for the big drop in his majority in the Cairns electorate, from 2242 to 790. Under the Labour Government a strong Communistic element has leavened the Labour movement, and, at a time when the Commonwealth Government, following the trial and conviction of certain I.W.W. men in Sydney on charges of sedition and arson, declared the I.W.W. an illegal organisation, Queensland was the only State in which the members of that organisation were permitted to carry on their _ activities, their headquarters being actually situated in the Brisbane Trades Hall. In their State enterprises the Government landed. the country into heavy losses on the State cattle stations, the State fish shops, the State produce markets, the State mines. Even the State butcher shops failed to give tjie public as good service as the private butcheries. The only socalled enterprises that really paid their way were the railway refreshment rooms, and the State Hotel at Babinda, and these could hardly help paying, although, in the case of the latter, the bar trade was the mainstay of the hotel, which was established by the Government, despite the closing of the two hotels in the district under the no-license vote, a majority of the residents being desirous of suppressing the liquor trade in their midst. Queensland may be congratulated upon having at last got rid of a Government which so signally misinterpreted the wishes of the majority and that, for the last fourteen years, has piled up huge losses on its railways and failed to better the condition of trade and industry on lines that would have kept it abreast of the other Spates. Mr McCormack and his colleagues have left their successors a sorry mess to clear up, and a very formidable task awaits the new Premier and his associates in making good the losses of the past 14 years. i .