VICTORIAN ELECTIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 19048, 27 June 1924, Page 11

VICTORIAN ELECTIONS

MELBOURNE. June 26. The result of the State elections to-day has everyone guessing. The campaign throughout has been dull, as public interest is lacking. Over a hundred and thirty candidates contest forty-five seats, while of twenty seats for which members have been returned unopposed, twelve are retained by Labour, five by Nationalists or Liberals, as they are now and three by the Country Party. There are four parties in the field, viz., Liberals, who stood by the Government, six Liberals who declined to follow the Government and who are being opposed by Labourites, and the Country Party. It is considered that Mr Peacock, who is leading the original Liberal wing, will secure a working majority, and the question is whether the Country Party, who will probably hold the balance of power, will decide to give Labour a trial at government. A section of the Country Party favour this. Labour, flushed with the success of their cause in other States and Britain, make what is considered an exaggerated claim, that they stand to secure a definite majority.

Some newspapers predict that there will be little change in the strength of parties, while others ask the ominous question—“ Will Labour Rule?”