A POLITICAL CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 13

A POLITICAL CRISIS

POSITION IN N.S. WALES. MR LANG’S ARBITRARY METHODS. (Preei Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY. November 19. (Received Nov. 19, at 6.5 p.m.) It is understood that the political crisis was to some extent hastened by the unexpected issue of a proclamation bringing into operation the Bill which was recently passed providing for single parliamentary seats in place of the former proportional representation system. This step was taken after a meeting of the Executive Council without consulting the Labour Caucus, which had anticipated that it would be given an opportunity of expressing its opinion on the subject. Many members on both sides opposed the redistribution scheme, and the arbitrary assumption by Mr of the pbwers conferred upon him at the recent Australian Party conference was strongly resented by some members of his party, including Mr Loughlin. TAX ON NEWSPAPERS. CONDEMNED AS A RETROGRADE STEP. LONDON, November 18. The Evening Standard declares that it is impossible to believe that Mr Lang’s halfpenny tax on newspapers will pass in any English-speaking country. There never was a more convinced and determined agitation, it says, than that against the tax on knowledge which resulted in the abolition of the newspaper tax in 1855. Presumably, the proposal includes books, which should make the outcry all the greater in a country with a new and struggling literary class.—A. and N.Z. Cable.