A SOUND EXAMPLE.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 April 1932, Page 6

A SOUND EXAMPLE.

The Government of Victoria has adopted a wiser course than that’ of New South Wales. It has decided to appeal to the electorate next month for a verdict in. regard to its conduct of State affairs, and there is much more reason in. this course than in raising constitutional issues in the manner for which New South Wales has become notorious. The Labour Ministry in Victoria, which was defeated in Parliament, has owed its retention of office to differences of opinion between the anti-Socialists. The Government has never possessed a majority in the Lower but when the financial difficulties became so pressing, and it was seen that the State Government was willing to follow sound advice, the Opposition determined not to harass the Ministry by making political capital out of the retrenchment policy found necessary. As a matter of fact, Victoria has minimised the effects of the depression more than any other State in Australia. Many of its men of affairs can still remember the collapse of the land, boom in the early nineties, and the caution that sharp lesson taught the State has never since been absent from its policy. There has been less interference with private commercial enterprise and less experiment in State Socialism than in any other portion of the Commonwealth. The consequence has been that recovery from the slump has already begun. Confidence in the State’s ability to- recover/ has never been lost; on the contrary, investors have been transferring funds from otlicr States, particularly New South Wales, for investment in Victoria. So long as the Labour Ministry was content to pursue a sane policy its continuance was not challenged by a united Opposition. There have been indications of late, however, that the Socialist element in the Ministry was anxious to try more spectacular and speculative methods of bringing about a recovery. The Ministry was challenged in regard to its future intentions, and ’when its reply proved equivocal its defeat became certain. An election is to be held next month, and there can be no more constitutional or sensible method than that of deciding whether the Government still possesses the confidence of the electorate. It is an example New South Wales would be wise to emulate and thus end the unhappy embroilments that are costing the older State so much money and loss of reputation.