THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1934, Page 4

THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTION.

The first returns in connection with the Federal election in Australia indicate an overwhelming majority for the antiLabour parties. It is true that none of the parties in the new Parliament will have a majority over all the others combined, but assuming a working arrangement is made between the United Australia and Country parties there will be 48 anti-Labour representatives against 26 Socialists. It is quite evident, therefore, that the electorate has endorsed the programme of the Lyons Ministry, and though there may be some modification of the Government’s policy to meet the wishes of the Country Party the Commonwealth seems likely to enjoy a stable Government for another three years. If the first returns prove reliable Labour has won seven seats more than in 1931, the Country and United Australia parties having lost three each, while one seat formerly held by an Independent is now held by a Labour member. Without reflecting in any way upon Australian domestic policies New Zealand will hear the result of the election with satisfaction. There are many negotiations in regard to trade between the Dominion and the Commonwealth, and in regard to trade from both countries with Great Britain, that have awaited the result of the election. The New Zealand Government' will now be spared the necessity of re-opening those negotiations with a Ministry elected upon a policy different from the one with which the Dominion has been in touch, and on this account there is better hope of settlements being reached without much further delay. As regards the two wings of the Labour Party the wins are fairly equally divided. The moderate section, led by Mr. Scullin, has won three seats and the more militant wing, under Mr. Lang’s leadership, has won four. But the swing to Labour some of the Socialist leaders foretold is conspicuous by its absence. Australia has preferred a Government that has kept to well-tried systems of finance and administration, has by their aid brought the Commonwealth out of the financial chaos into which it had drifted under the last Labour Ministry, and has made adherence to those principles one of the planks in the programme it laid before the electorate. The Ministry lias many problems yet to be solved, but the knowledge that it has the confidence of a great majority of the electors will encourage it in its endeavours to remove the -difficulties that lie in the way of a complete return to prosperity. ,