GOVERNMENT BEATEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 137, 12 May 1941, Page 7

GOVERNMENT BEATEN

NEW SOUTH WAL.ES ELECTION. SYDNEY, May 11. A landslide against the Government at the State elections on Saturday enj sures the formation of a Labour Alin- ! istry. When the counting of votes i closed hist night the position of the ! parties was : i Official Labour 4/& United Australia and United Country 30 I Independent 2 | Doubtful 11 The United Australia and United Country Party total includes three Independent U.A.P. members. Labour thus far has not lost a seat. It has good chances in nine of thedoubtful seats and so it may have .5(3 j members,, compared with 34 in the old House. lilts would give it a I majority of 22 over the other parties, j The State Labour Party, led by Mr | J. It. Hughes, failed to win a seat j although it had 28 candidates. A noteworthy feature of the poll I was that in some electorates the In-i I dependent United Australia Party candidate defeated the endorsed United; Australia Party candidate. This oc- j eurred in Alosman, where Rev. D. P. Alac-donald, a Presbyterian minister, i had an overwhelming win against! Alajor-General H. W. Lloyd, DirectorGeneral of Recruiting. The Premier (Mr Alair) will have a) hard fight to retain the Albur.v seat. I He at present has a small majority, ] but there are 7115 votes outstanding.! The Minister of National Emergency Service (Mr Primrose) in North Svd- 1 no, and the Minister of Works and 1 Local Government (Air Martin) in Ox- j ley, apparently face certain defeat. I Other Alinistors fighting hard are j the Chief Secretary (Air Touting) in Orange, the Aiinister of Agriculture | (Air Reid) in A’oung, and the Minister of Lands (Air Yeo) in Liverpool. The I Minister of Health (Air Fitzsimons) is in danger of defeat in Lane Cove, considered a United Australia Party stronghold for many years. j The selection of members of the! Labour Cabinet will be decided by! caucus and the leader of the Official! Labour Party, Mr AlcKell, who will ; automatically be Premier, will allot I the portfolios. A new portfolio to bo: created will be the Ministry of I Housing.

CAUSE OE DEFEAT. Tlic factors which contributed to the downfall ol the Government are not easy to trace. Some attribute the defeat to Ihe inevitable swing of the pendulum, and others to a desire for a change of Government from that which occupied the Treasury benches for nine years, ever since the dismissal of Air Lang by the Governor (Sir Fill lip Game). Some Press critics contend that the landslide revealed that the people of New South Wales were utterly fed up with the Alair Government’s complacency and Bumbledom-—a Parliament of machine-cogs—but a far larger section of the community ascribe the defeat to the reaction to more or less unpopular legislation and decrees inposed by the war.

Air AfcKcll, who leads the moderate elements of Labour, stands high in public esteem. He is a barrister aged 49 and began life as a boilermaker. He entered Parliament in 1917 and held the portfolios of Aiinister of .Justice, Assistant Treasurer, and Aiinister of Local Government in the Lang Ministries. He is at present a grower of Corriedale sheep at Goulburn.

The position of the parties in the old House was: Government ; 55 Labour ' 34 Independent ... ... 1 One scat was abolished bv a redi.-lribu-tinn of scats. Labour did not contest one of the changed scats. 33