LABOUR'S TRIUMPHAL SONG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19991, 6 July 1928, Page 14

LABOUR'S TRIUMPHAL SONG.

AUSTRALIAN BY-ELECTION.

RESULT OF OPPONENTS' SPLIT

[from our own correspondent. 1 SYDNEY. June 28.

The Labour Party has been indulging in an enthusiastic song of triumph tho last day or two because of the fact that, at tho Federal by-election at Martin, one of tho Nationalists' strongholds, that party secured at least 2000 less votes, and Labour about 1500 more, than they received at the general election threo years ago. Labour, in its paean of triumph, soes in this, or professes to see, tho writing on tho wall. On the surface, tho figures suggest a disquieting; Nationalist retread in one of its most impregnable electorates, but the simple fact is that it was the Nationalist split over the pre-selcction that was largely responsible for this and the staggering list of informal votes. It is known gonerally that quite a lot of informal votes, for example, were cast by disgruntled Nationalist supporters, dissatisfied with the pro-selection ballot. Labour has not the ghost of a chance, and never will have, under the present boundaries, of winning Martin, and it knows it, even if it docs try to make the public believe that tho Nationalists havo lost political casto there.