AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12908, 3 July 1905, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

After a short attempt at government by Coalition, the Federal Parliament has returned to the threeparty system, and finds itself, as a consequence, in the throes of political crisis. The cause for this reactionary movement is to be found in the persistence of the old fiscal interests. Mr. Reid made a very brilliant effort to subordinate them to a policy of organised resistance to the socialistic doctrines of the Labour Party, but various incidents, particularly those connected with the operations of American " combines,'' revived Protectionist ardour. When this occurred there was no outcome but a collapse of the Coalition unless Mr. Rcid and ,the Free Traders were prepared to surrender on fiscal problems to the Protectionist half of the party. Evidently they were not prepared to do so, and Mr. Deakin thereupon seized an opportunity to convey to the Labour Party a public statement of his non-partici-pation in Mr. Reid's anti-socialistic campaign. As a result, Protectionists and Free Traders combined to overthrow Mr. Reid. A majority of 42 against 25 is nominally strong enough to make a new Government, but the Governor-General refuses a dissolution, and if Mr. Deakin accepts office the Labour Party, sitting on the cross-benches, will be in a position to make its own terms. Mr. Watson will support Protection in return for sufficient concessions just as he would support Free Trade if it paid his party better. Free Traders and Protectionists are thus played off against each other, until those who view Australian politics are disposed to consider that our neighbours are subject to the economic disease that has been termed "fiscalitis," and are therefore not able to take an intelligent and commonsense view of the dangerous situation in which they place them- : selves*