MOMENTOUS ELECTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21668, 11 June 1932, Page 11

MOMENTOUS ELECTIONS

TWO AUSTRALIAN STATES THE EVE OF THE POLLING KEENEST INTEREST CREATED (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) SYDNEY, June 10. (Received June 10, at 9 p.ra.) Elections will be held in the sister States of New South Wales and Queensland to-morrow,/which are creating the keenest interest throughout Australia. The Commonwealth Ministry, for obvious reasons, is hoping for the return of governments pledged to the carrying out of the Premiers’ Plan for the rehabilitation of the national finances, which has already been partly accomplished. That Mr Lang’s relations with the Commonwealth are strained to the uttermost is common knowlege. Indeed, he would give the Federal Government no quarter, and certainly would get none if he was returned. Mr Lang’s policy makes it quite clear that he will launch the biggest offensive in the history of the State on banks and other financial interests with his mortgage taxation measure. Originally he stated that the £10,000,000 to £12,000,000 thus obtained would help to pay. overseas bondholders’ interest, but now he explains that the money would be devoted to providing employment, and whatever was left over would go to the bondholders. It is safe to say that no Premier has received such a raking from the newspapers, and no politician since the late Mr George Reid has been caricatured to the same extent or purpose. Despite the orgy of political capital that his opponents have made out of Mr Lang’s hectic career they argue that to win the enemy must swing over 179,535 votes, which is an impossibility, Labour, having won 15 seats in 1930, now counts on winning 10 more. Party organisers for the Government side, however, predict that Labour will .lose practically every seat in the country and several in the metropolis. They put it that in eight or ten contests in 1930 the majorities were so narrow in favour of Labour that it will be quite a simple process to swing them away from Labour on this occasion, and that the people who will do the trick comprise the middle class and small business men, who in 1930 were deluded by Mr Lang’s lavish promises. POSITION IN QUEENSLAND. CLOSE CONTEST INEVITABLE. BRISBANE. June 10. (Received June 10, at 9 p.m.) Impartial observers say that a close contest is inevitable in the Queensland elections. The Labour opposition has so much leeway to make up that a big swing is necessary to give it the reins of office. In the last Parliament the parties were as follow:—Country, Progressive, and Nationalists 44, Labour 20, Independents 2. The Redistribution Act reduced the number of seats by 10, leaving the parties as follow:—Country, Progressive, and Nationalist 41, Labour 19, Independents 2. Labour must therefore gain 13 seats to secure a majority. It is expected that Labour will score heavily in the north and central districts, and jn the metropolitan area. The Government should hold its own on Darling Downs and the south coast, but it is regarded as unlikely that it will gain seats anywhere. The general, belief is that its majority is likely to be reduced, but whether it will vanish altogether will be determined on polling day. In addition to having no sympathy with the Premiers’ Plan as at present drawn, the Labour Leader (Mr Forgan Smith) promises to raise a “ revival loan ” for the absorption of the unemployed. This money was supposed to come from the Colonial Sugar Refining Company, but the . Premier (Mr . A. E. Moore) has now ascertained that the company has not been approached upon such a matter. Nine parties are contesting the election as follows: — „ 1. The Government Party. 2. The Country and Progressive Nationalist Party. 3. The official Labour Party. 4. The Independents. 5. The Queensland Party. 6. The Communists. 7. The Lang Planners. 8. The Douglas Credits system advocates. 9. The Independent Farmers’ Party. “ THE LANG BLIGHT.” SYDNEY, June 10. (Received June 10, at 9 p.m.) Addressing a huge rally in the Sydney Town Hall,, the Prime Minister (Mr J. A. Lyons) announced: “If Mr Lang is put back again we will tie him up as we tied him up before. I have already said on several occasions that while the ‘ Lang blight ’ remains there is no hope for Australia, and the incubus will have to be removed.” THE LANG SECRET SERVICE. DOCUMENT HANDED TO POLICE. SYDNEY, June 10. The Telegraph says that police action began the instant the document was found at Parliament House and handed to the Commissioner of Police. ComirnV sioner Childs stated that a thorough investigation would be made. The Chief Secretary (Mr F. Chaffey) commented that it was consistent with the resolutions passed at the Easter Conference, 1931, and rescinded next day. It was the same Soviet plan that the Lang Government had been associated with all along. The Telegraph adds: “ A message to the Labour Daily late on Wednesday night informed it of the impending publication of the document. It was quick into print with condemnation of it without having seen it.” THE STEVENS MINISTRY. AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD. “The Stevens Ministry has been in office for only a short time, but it already has.an impressive record of service to the State. As a result there is a refreshingly optimistic outlook in Sydney to-day,” declared Mr Walter J. Watson, a Christchurch jeweller, who returned on Thursday from a visit to Australia. Mr Watson said that the increased confidence was being reflected throughout Australian business circles and in every class in the community; Business in Brisbane Mr Watson found to be very brisk, but the Queensland capital had not suffered from the effects of the depression to anything like the extent that Sydney had. However, there had been a marked improvement in New South Wales since the change of Government. Perhaps the most important of the Stevens Government’s measures was the immediate provision of work for 30,000 men. The Ministry was tackling the unemployment'problom with vigour, and men were being absorbed as industry and

commerce began to expand to their former dimensions. The Standard Portland Cement Works will reopen immediately, providing employment for another 250 men. Notices ordering the retirement of 900 civil servants who had reached the age of GO years were suspended by the Stevens Ministry. A measure that will be of great value to the commercial section of Sydney is about to be effected, stated Mr Watson. He referred to the special concessions made 'to users of the trams during the shopping hours of the day. As an example of the return of confidence in the New South Wales Government Mr Watson mentioned that a business man had of his own volition made the Government a loan, free of interest, of £SOO, such to be used at a later date for the payment of his income tax. “ The gold exchange business is now on the wane in Australia,” said Mr Watson, “ Following the terrific volume of business in the last eight or nine months supplies must now be getting short, but there is another potent reason. The decrease of unemployment consequent on the return of confidence with the ousting of ;the Labour Government has lifted a great number of people above the starvation line, apd there is not now the same necessity to realise on every bit of property they have got.” During the boom period, said Mr Watson, long queues of people waited at the agencies with their odd pieces of jewellery. Every jeweller’s shop was willing and anxious to accept old gold, and in addition there was an average of two or three gold agencies in every block of the city. The poverty-stricken thousands of Sydney had taken the opportunity to sell every bit of gold in their possession. While waiting in one shop Mr Watson saw a man come in and receive a small sum for the gold mounting of his fountain pen. which he removed at the counter. There was undoubtedly much money to be made in the gold exchange business. At least one Brisbane agent had made a fortune in it. The mint, greatly needing supplies of gold, offered the dealers good prices for the ingots, but some preferred to ship the metal Home to England. Mr Watson wab of the opinion that the recent opening of numerous gold exchanges in New Zealand was the result of the decline of such business in Australia. People here had as yet to realise what a source of wealth their old pieces of jewellery might constitute.