POLITICS IN AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20703, 29 April 1929, Page 10

POLITICS IN AUSTRALIA.

NATIONALIST' PARTY LOSING GROUND. PRE-ELECTION OF CANDIDATES. (From Otth . Own Correspondent, i SYDNEY, April 18. The fact that- the Nationalist Party has unquestionably lost ground since the last election, at least in New South Wales, if not ‘in the other States, invests with interest the annual convention of the party, or association in Sydney, The bugbear of Nationalism, judging from the views of those who wish it well and have the courage to say what they think, is .the system of rigid party selection, or pre-selection, of candidates. Of the bitter feeling which it has given rise to there was a striking illustration in a by-election in one of the Federal metropolitan seats of Sydney not long ago, when a number of good Nationalists in one of that party’s strongholds preferred to render their votes informal rather than _ submit to what they termed coercion. The - feeling among many Nationalists is that the party is being cabined and confined, and losing force as a great political entity, because of the need for the reform of its machinery; The point is emphsaised that, with the preferential , system, there is no necessity for the present rigid party selection under which one candidate, and one alone, is selected as the party’s, standard-bearer by the votes of practically a few dozen people. The Labour Party in New South Wales has never viewed the outlook more brightly than at present, taking both State and Federal arenas, and not without good cause, if one can gauge the pulse of public feeling. The State Government has certainly done little to improve the Nationalists’ stock in New South Wales.