AUSTRALIAN PARTIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14345, 15 April 1910, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN PARTIES.

Although the returns of the Commonwealth elections are still incomplete, they show an unexpectedly heavy polling by the Labour Party in every State. It is evident that the Fusion movement came too late to gather in the rank and file of the old Protectionist and Free Trade factions, whose leaders are paying the penalty for their persistence in refusing to acknowledge that new issues had taken possession of the Federal field. The well-established and long-developed organisation of the Labour Party, on the other hand, has apparently worked with the smoothness and steadiness of the political " machine" for which it was intended, and to this the success of many Labour candidates in previously doubtful electorates may fairly be ascribed. If the result of the battle' is to consolidate the Fusion Party and to remove lingering traces of discord and mistrust the severe lesson it has received will not have been thrown away. Owing to the peculiar relations existing in Australia between the Federal and the State authorities it is practically impossible for any Federal Government to wield the extraordinary influence possible where all patronage lies in one set of hands; as a consequence Federal Parties must deal with popular issues and study the drift of public opinion if they are to hold their own. The Labour Party in its long struggle for supremacy has been practical enough to recognise this, and the Fusion Party may be expected to adopt the same course, on lines which appeal to that great majority which must always be opposed to rash and confiscatory legislation, while consistently inclined to progressive measures.