DRAMATIC SCENES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23887, 15 August 1939, Page 12

DRAMATIC SCENES

NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMEN'T'S DEFEAT CROWDED GALLERIES CHEER VOTE (From Our Own Correspondent) 5 SYDNEY, Aug. 4. ''• The defeat of the Stevens Government in the Legislative Assembly yesterday provided one of the iniost dramatic scenes in. v recent Parliamentary history in New South, Wales, and scenes outside the House were unprecedented! Early in the afternoon a crowd had gathered outside Parliament House, and when, at 3 p.m., word 'went round that Mr Spooner was speaking in reply and the vital vote was a matter of minutes, the crowd i had packed the courtyard and verandas oi! the House. In the. Chamber there was an air of acute tension. The public galleries were jammed. Hundreds of eyes were focused on the short, trim figure of Mr Spooner, who was speaking with force and in- 1 creasing bitterness. The House heard him in tense-silence.' The Premier sat with folded' arms and bowed head, now .and again fluttering his hands across his lap. Abruptly Mr Spooner! finished He glanced once, tight-lipped,- round the House, and returned to his seat.; , .. ; The Speaker put the question to the House. At once there was a storm of "Ayes" and "Noes," cries of "The Ayes have it," and "The Noes have it," and exeited whisperings in the galleries. As members rose to cross the floor to vote* tension was loosed and babel broke out in congratulations, conjectures and recriminations. The Speaker called for order and announced the count—43 votes for the motion, 41 against. . . . Tine motion was carried* and the Government defeated..

Renewed hubbub greeted the announcement. There were cheers, cries of " Traitors," other cries'about the "dictator's fall," and clapping and cheering from the galleries. ..It was an uneasy end to days of tension and uncertainty. '.;'• ' ■ /.. Outside the House, the news spread through the assembled crowd of more than 500. They cheered Mr Spooner as he came : outside to be photographed. He was mobbed. Strangers pumped his hand, and, in buoyant mood, he seemed not to care. Mr Stevens was surrounded by his loyal supporters, who commiserated with him. ..'-., Mr Spooner's' 'motion,' -which proved fatal to the Government, was: "That in the opinion of this 1 House the'drift in the State's finances, as disclosed by the Premier in his speech on July 26; and by the accounts and abstracts of receipts and payments just published,; has seriously weakened the Government's cash resources and created the present financial position for 1939-40. That this House recommends to the Government the urgent necessity for a new financial policy for 1939-40, so that its resources may be strengthened, works and development may proceed, trade may be re* vived, and the Government's capacity for handling the problems of unemployment may be improved. That, as one of the means to this end, the House recommends the establishment by law of a separate trust account for the proceeds of the special income and wages tax to be earmarked exclusively, for costs incurred or to be incurred for the relief of unemployment, so that adequate provision may be made in 1939-40 for distress arising from this cause." . : '•■'■.": ,■•' -"'i'i'': :??{■

Although Mr. Spooner had said: "This is not a censure motion. It is an attempt to offer constructive assistance to the Government and secure action from the Government," Mr Stevens announced that he had decided to regard the motion as one of direct censure. Thus he wrote disaster for his Government.

"The reason why I left the Cabinet," Mr Spooner had said. " was that the Premier neglected the State's finances while he tried to get into Federal politics, and now he is trying to take it out of the hides of the unemployed, and I will not stand for it." The members of the United Australia Party who voted for Mr Spooner's motion were Messrs J. C. Ross, J, Shand, F. Chaffey, E. Sanders, J. Murray Robson, J. C. Lee, R. B. Walker, S. A. Lloyd, W. Bennett and Mr Spooner himself. Mr Lethbridge, an Independent Country Party member, also voted for it. Three of Mr Stevens's supporters were abroad, and two were.' ill -in the country, the Opposition refusing to grant them pairs.