FEDERAL ELECTION RESULT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 20 November 1937, Page 11

FEDERAL ELECTION RESULT

IMMENSE FILLIP TO TRADE AND INDUSTRY LITTLE CHANGE OF LABOUR RULE VIEWS OF MR F. W. DOIDGE I Hv TiHcero ph - Press Association! AUCKLAND, 19th November. Labour’s example in New Zealand should be sufficient to ensure at least another 21 years of freedom for Australia from Socialist rule, according to Mr F. W. Doidgc, Auckland, who returned by the Awatca from Sydney after a visit to Australia. It was significant, he said, that in a period of 21 years Labour had been in office as the Federal Government of Australia for only 21 months. “To Australia,” he said, “already enjoying abundant prosperity, the result of the Federal elections means an immense (illip to trade and industry. Today the Australian, always an optimist, feels that he is on top of the world. Early in the new year, Stale elections will lake place in New South Wales. To the student of politics it is obvious that the Stevens Government will again sweep the country, thus consolidating the feeling of political security which was the natural outcome of the Federal elections. “In view ol' the extreme sensitiveness to criticism of Mr Savage and Mr Nash, I declined to make any Press statement while in Australia. I saw no reason, however, for not offering to Mr B. S. B. Stevens, Premier of New South Wales, and Sir Sydney Snow, president of the United Australia Party, the private opinion that they could bank on another 21 years of freedom from Labour rule in Australia. The example of Socialist rule in New Zealand should be sufficient to ensure that.

“Two outstanding features impress the visitor to Australia at the present time—the prosperity of the people, less than 6 per cent, of whom are unemployed, and the cheapness of living. The abundance and low cost of foodstuffs and the comparatively low rents prevailing mean that Australia's prosperity is not a chimera but something splendidly real.” It was the policy of the Government, said Mr Doidge, to encourage Australian industry. It was realised that there was only one way in the world to provide jobs and to raise wages, and that was by making industry profitable. In material progress, to compare Australia with New Zealand was to compare the quick with the dead.