CHANGING GOVERNMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 10

CHANGING GOVERNMENTS

Few • one-party Governments survive elections in these times. The unrest and discontent which are universal seem to be sufficient to destroy a majority and place new men in office, from which, should the depression continue long enough, they may expect to be ousted at the next poll. It is one of the privileges of democracy to express its resentment at ill-fortune by "kicking out" its Parliamentary rulers. The ordinary factors apply also, but the almost unbroken succession of defeats of administrations which do not represent coalitions must be accepted as a direct consequence of tho depression, for parties of all shades of political colour have shared the fate that is so common. At the general election in Nova Scotia this week the Conservative Government was i - eplaced by a Liberal one. Australia has been ready for change at every opportunity. In April the electors of Western Australia, although strongly in favour of secession, for which the Government candidates fought, dismissed the non-Labour Government and placed a Labour administration in control. On the same day South Australia reduced the Labour Party which had held office to a handful. Last year New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland all declared against the previous Government. In New South Wales the circumstances, owing to the dismissal of Mr. Lang by the Governor, were unusual, but he failed to gain confirmation of his policy, and Mr. Stevens rules. In Queensland, Labour recovered the Treasury benches, while in Victoria Labour was decisively defeated by a combination of the other two parties. About the same time the Constitutionalist Government of Malta was defeated by the Nationalist Opposition, and Newfoundland also joined the fashion. In the previous year the Australian Federal Government

was overwhelmed. In 1930 the Canadian Conservatives prevailed over the Liberals, who had been in office, and across the border a Democrat President now occupies White House, the Republican regime having been ended. In the Irish Free State Mr. de Valera first gained office in February, 1932, and was returned again this year, an unusual achievement, for which special circumstances may account. In Britain, South Africa and New Zealand, coalitions succeeded where single parties might have failed. Unity for stability is the lesson indicated.