MR. LANG'S TROUBLES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19659, 10 June 1927, Page 6

MR. LANG'S TROUBLES.

SPLIT IN LABOUR PARTY. A MORIBUND GOVERNMENT. NEW SOUTH WALES POLITICS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY. June 2. Mr. Lang's troublous two years in office as Premier of New South Wales have reached a sickly climax in the acute division of his followers and his retention of control of the flairs of this State at the head of a moribund Government. Probably never before in New South Wales has there been such a degrading political situation. When Labour was returned to power in May, 1925, with an absolute majority in the Legislative Assembly, it seemed to have the ball at its feet. It is now history how Mr. Lang abused his mandate ' to govern by introducing and bludgeoning through the House extreme legislation that imposed ridiculous, burdens upon both primary and secondary industries to ' benefit manual workers. The extreme nature of that legislation was responsible ; for the present Labour split, for mem- ' bers of the party representing country constituencies recognised that with such legislation hanging like a millstone round their necks, they could never win the country votes'" as they had been won in 1925. . J It is needless to recall the twelve months old struggle with the extreme in*' dustrial section of the party, as represented by Hr. Lang and his henchman, Mr. A. C. Willis, the coalminers' champion. That struggle resulted, first, in the resignation of a Minister, Mr. Loughlia, a tried moderate Labour man, from the party and a schism in the ranks of fchaparty that spelt rocks ahead, and, secondly, in the spread of the fight to tha controlling body of the Labour party oafc." side Parliament, the State executive. It is history, too, how the executive became divided into minority and majority executives, the former maintaining that the usual Easter conference of the party should be held, the latter claiming that under one of the rules of the party it had .power to postpone the conference this month. It is further history how Mr. Lang,, prodded by Mr. Willi*, | plumped for the Easter conference, despite its proclaimed '(Redness"—an advocacy that was quickly disclaimed by most ;i of his Ministers. Desperate efforts were made by Labour's friends to heal the quarrel, but they were unsuccessful. Falling of- the Bombshell. Then at the end of last week a bombshell fell. The rock on which Labour's ship of state finally wrecked was the appointment of Mr. T. Treble, formerly Mr. Lang's private secretary, at Child Endowment Commissioner at a ■'% salary of £IBSO a year, although there were many public service officers senior to him. The" other Ministers declared their tinwillingness to accept Mr. Treble's appointment. Mr. Lang insisted on it, and * a deadlock was reached. Mr. Lang d*- \ cided then th\t the only thing was an immediate dissolution. When an executive council meeting was f called, Mr. Lang sought a dissolution. The other Ministers, except Mr. Willis, opposed it. The Governor, Sir Dudley De Chair, seeing the division in the Cabinet, refused the dissolution. Mr. Lang then tendered the resignation of his Cab- -j inet. It was expected by the other Min- , isters that one- of. them would be called-, J" upon to form a Ministry,, but the Governor recommissioned Mr. Lang to form the new Cabinet, on condition that a dissolution was sought at an early datp— . as soon as the electoral rolls had been prepared for an election. Then began a counting of the forces. Mr. Lang was left with 21 followers. Opposed to him were 25 former supporters. The two factions were as acutely divided as if they were of opposite political faiths. Mr. Bavin, as Leader of the Nationalists, was left with the largest party, 33. But Parliament has been prorogued, and though undoubtedly the Lang rump of a party would suffer defeat on the floor of the* House, it is conducting the huge business of running New South Wales. Union of Opposition Forces. But an election must come, probably in August. What will be Labour's fate? But for the glorious surprises of politics, that would be easy to answer, yet even the most ardent Labour man, be he proLang or anti-Lang, has not enough courage to anticipate a Labour victory. It would need a miracle to weld the two Labour factions, now headed by Mr. Lang and Mr. Thomas Mutch, formerly Minister of Education —and a good Minister, too. Even should that happen the odium of publicity given to the party's internecine fights would still attach to it. On the other hand, the non-Socialist forces, Nationalists and Country Party, are reaching agreement to prevent votesplitting. Though each party will retain its present entity, arrangements are being made for Nationalists to give way to Country Party candidates in electorates wher6 the latter have a chance of beating Labour in straight-out contests, and Country Party men will not oppose Nationalists where-'the latter have fair chances of conquering Socialist, "Votesplitting killed non-Socialist- hopes in May, 1925. It is not likely to do so in 1927.