POLITICS IN VICTORIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18730, 9 June 1924, Page 7

POLITICS IN VICTORIA.

THE COMING ELECTIONS. DIVIDED. ANTI-LABOUR PARTY. [FROM OUR OWN" correspondent.] SYDNEY, May 28. The pending election in Victoria, following the termination of the St&te Parliament several months earlier than would have been the case had it run its natural course, has been brought about by the squabbles between the Nationalists and the Country ' Party, which for several years have been manifested in almost every political sphere throughout Australia. The theory that there is some sharp and unbridgeable division between city and country interest? justifies, in the minds of some country politicians, the maintenance of an impossible state of disunity in anti-Labour, forces, and although the consequences have been demonstrated in West Australia and South Australia in recent months, many intractable members of the Victorian Farmers' Union will not hear of any permanent understanding which would assure the electors of a firm and stable Government in the event of antiLabcur being again returned. There are many indications that the rank and file of electors neither follow nor have any patience with the rather intangible differences which keep the antiLabour Governments perpetually on a powder magazine, and, in Victoria, that fact has produced the curious spectacle, not merely of a divided anti-Labour Party, but of a sharp, internal division between the Country Party itself, one side supporting a permanent understanding and the other setting itself against any understanding whatsoever that does not give it a majority in the Cabinet. The real root of the dissensions in Victoria, as elsewhere, appears; to be more personal than national, the leaders who support an understanding being pretty certain of office if they .succeed, and the malcontents feeling pretty sure that the only hope they themselves have of office is to prove intractable until they form a breakaway and eventually negotiate. Such a state of perpetual flux and bickering gives the Labour Party hopes that it will be able, to, repeat in Victoria, and later in the Commonwealth and New South Wales, its signal successes in the west and south.

Mr. Lawson, as Premier of Victoria, a few months ago made a bold vesture following the farmers' resolution limiting the slender understanding between the two parties to the life of the present Parliament. He resigned and formed a purely Nationalist Government, but thereafter hist powers were so restricted by being unable to rely upon the Country Party's support that the position was impossible. He handed over the administration to Sir Alexander Peacock, and himself sought the Speakership, but was defeated through '.he combined vote of the Country and Labour Parties. Dissolution soon followed and the election will take place on June 26.

At the moment, the Nationalists and Country Party confront each other with drawn swords, but. there are influential elements on each side which are still hopeful of presenting some sort of a united front to the electors, even if it only amounts to an understanding regarding the allocation of the preference votes. ■ It is expected that the recent tramway strike and the preceding police mutiny will .be a powerful weapon against the Labour Party, and many observers expect that the state of parties will not be greatly changcd, and that the new Parliament will be little less difficult to work than has been the expiring one.