QUEENSLAND POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13493, 21 May 1907, Page 4

QUEENSLAND POLITICS.

The assertion of Mr. Deakin that the Australian Labour party had passed its maturity, and that the Queensland election would show a decline in the Labour strength of that State, has been sufficiently justified. The Queensland Labour party has been thrown back to the position it occupied half a generation ago, its 35 seats being reduced to 20, and the. Ministerialists, with whom it has been allied, becoming dominant in the combination. But although Queensland has been thus secured, against any danger of being directly governed by an extremist section, it is noticeable . that the three-party system is maintained as in Federal politics. The dual party system has been so universal in British countries and has existed for so many generations that we have become accustomed to regard it as - the national one, and as necessary to sound government. Upon the European continent, on the contrary, representative institutions are marked by numerous parties, Governments holding office by their ability to combine these parties rather than by, their ability to command a majority in the country at large. It is a discouraging prospect when colonial States tend towards the continental as against the British system, for,it is agreed that greater progress and surer freedom are attained under the latter. It is to be hoped, however, that in spite of the Australian experience the three-party system is only a passing phase of our democratic evolution. In any case the policy of the Australian Labour parties, of selling their support to either of the other parties in return for class concessions, cannot well be continued indefinitely. For if carried far enough it becomes obviously more advantageous for the others to combine against it, a remedy which might easily be adopted, in Federal politics were it not for the lingering fiscal differences between Freetraders and Protectionists.