PARTY POSITION

Northern Advocate, 17 September 1934, Page 6

PARTY POSITION

EXPRESSION OF CONFIDENCE

PRIME MINISTER PLEASED

“MANY HAPPY RETURNS.”

PATRIOTIC PRINCIPLES

SYDNEY, September 16. As the result of the Federal election yesterday, the Lyons Government, with its former large majority reduced to a negligible extent, received an .unequivocal mandate to carry on. . Based on the latest returns, the state of "parties in the new House of Representatives (74 seats as against 75 previously), appeared to be as follows, the strength of the parties in the former House being shown for comparison;— r This Last - election House United Australia .. 36 38 United Country .Federal Labour ..... 15 14 -State Labour 8 5 Independent —2 Doubtful 74 • 75 AH the Ministers, with the exception of Mr J. A. Guy, Assistant Minister of Customs, will be returned. The Prime Minister is having an easy victory in Willmot, Tasmania. It was his 54th, birthday yesterday, and he said: “I certainly am experiencing many happy returns. My party is still overwhelmingly the largest in the House of Representatives. “The Government has received a magnificent expression of confidence. We shall go forward with our task of placing Australia completely on her feet. , It is quite apparent that the people are not prepared to trust themselves to adventuring in the uncharted and tempestuous seas of financial experiment.”

Directors’ Analysis. The campaign directors of the United Australia Party go to the length of predicting that the prime Minister will have a personal following of 37 in the new House, and that he will have lost only one seat when the final returns are in'hand. The campaign directors’ analysis is as follows: — The United Australia Party already has definitely lost the Lang seats in New South Wales and the Maribyrnohg and Batman seats in Victoria, but will gain Corangamite (Victoria) and Werriwa (New South Wales), from the Country Party. Thus it will have 37, dhey say, or half the total membership of the new House, Any seats lost by the Government and .the Country Party will be due entirely to the fact that these seats, Labour strongholds, were won during the 1931 landslide and now are reverting to Labour, as the Prime Minister, Mr J. A. Lyons, anticipated.

The Government hitherto had an absolute majority over all the other parties, with the result that it was not necessary officially to coalesce with the Country Party, Now, however, the latter party hold the balance of power, and interesting political developments are regarded as inevitable. Unofficially it was stated last night that the Government could count on the support of the Country Party. Owing to the smallness of the returns and the large number of candidates in the field for the Senate, it will hot be possible to indicate the*outcome of the election for that House for several days, although here again the Government forces are making a strong showing. A notable victory for the United Australia Party in New South Wales relates to Mr T. D. Mutch, formerty State Minister of Education in the Lang regime. He defeated a strong opponent, Mr P. Lazzarini, who was the Lang (or State Labour) nominee for Werriwa, which at last election was won by the Country Party.