The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 3937. THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 254, 26 October 1937, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 3937. THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTIONS

’’pilE result of the Australian Federal Elections is of more than usual interest because it evidences that the Australian public has not been impressed by the programme which the New Zealand Government is implementing. The eyes of the world may be on New Zealand —and they may not—but certain it is the world is not being fascinated by the Dominion’s current history. The Australian people are said to be fickle in their political allegiance. The return of Mr. Lyons to the Federal Treasury Benches dispels that view, lie took the lead in the United Front with some reluctance, but being assured that he was “the man,’’ he went forward with wisdom. He asked for a team, and it is to his credit that he has remained a team worker. This team spirit extends beyond his Cabinet, and even beyond Parliament, for there are able men who surround him and who are prepared to give to him their collective wisdom when he calls for it. The result has been, since his accession to the Prime Ministership, the growth of a compactness in the public life of Australia. This broad .base of team work has begotten a widespread confidence, and it is not surprising that, with a good record of work behind him, he should have been returned for the third time by the Federal Electorate. Perhaps the greatest compliment which could be paid to the present Government of Australia was that unconsciously paid b.y the Opposition. Tacitly' it admitted that the Lyons Cabinet had done good work by' failing to attack the Government’s programme. There was an effort to capitalise for political purposes the Mrs. Freer case, which was of no importance. There was also an effort to exploit the Banking Commission’s report, but here again there was nothing much to catch hold of. Mr. Curtin’s proposal to open two thousand branches of the Commonwealth Bank was pointless in a country' which is so heavily banked as is Australia. New Zealand’s innovation of the 40-hour week failed to raise enthusiasm, doubtless because the public realised that when it costs more to produce goods those goods must command a higher price. Further, Australians are concerned about the promotion of employment, not idleness, because employment promotes wellbeing and idleness breaks it down. What else was left? It was only possible to win the general election, or even to stop the debacle which was facing the Labour Party, by' throwing a scare into the minds of the public. This is a technique which Mr. Lang has exploited time and again in his operations within the Labour Party, and the recurrent success which has attended those efforts docs not provide evidence of a high standard of intelligence in the following of the Labour Party in Australia. Fortunately' Mr. Lang’s tactics have again failed to mislead the majority' of his countrymen and have once again proved to the Australian Labour Party that this forceful man is a liability' and not an asset. The failure of the Labour Party to join issue with tile Government on the latter’s programme and its bringing forward of the military compulsion scare when it was not an issue, coupled with its unwillingness to advocate the New Zealand Labour Party’s programme, should be sufficient evidence to those who think—as distinct from those who are motivated solely by' fear—that Labour has no solution HI <’■<> :, F fh;it flesh is heir to.