LANG OR BAVIN?

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18157, 23 October 1930, Page 6

LANG OR BAVIN?

On Saturday the electors of New Sou Lit Wales will have to make a stupendous choice, for on that day the general election for the Stale Legislature will be held and the result will have a repercussion throughout the Commonwealth. The finances of Australia, Federal and State are in a parlous state, and the task of balancing the budgets is proving difficult to tiie Governments. Heavier taxation lias had to be imposed; and every possible method of raising revenue exploited. The resulLs, so far, have not been too gratifying. The Scullin Government requisitioned the services of Sir Otto Niemeyer, the eminent financier, and after an investigation he advised the Finance Ministers that while the position was not desperate it was most serious. He urged drastic economy in public expenditure, and a sustained effort to make revenue balance expenditure. The several Governments without exception, recognised the wisdom of the counsel and sel them-

selves assiduously to reach financial stability. Publio men, however, who are not burdened with the responsibility of office, declare that the situation is not as depicted; that all is well and flourishing, and do not hesitate to affirm that Sir Otto Niemeyer is more concerned for the conservation of financial interests than the welfare of Australia. Mr Hughes is one who has adopted this attitude, whilst Mr Lang, the leader of the Labour Party in New South Wales, has thrown down the gauntlet and declared that the way of salvation will not be found by economy but by the inauguration of an era of lavish spending. He has promised that if returned to power, he will restore prosperity at one boundThere will be no reduction in wages or salaries, the 44-hour week will be restored, a loan of £20,000,000 will be raised, and the country will flourish like a green bay tree. This programme of course would be impossible of accomplishment, but the lure of it may attract the unwary, and if Mr Lang is returned there can be no question that the “ last state will be worse than the first.” The Bavin Government has during its term of office had a difficult row to hoe but it has carried out its task well, and it will be little short of calamitous if it is displaced at this time of crisis. An Australian paper thus sums up the position:—“We must judge the Government not alone on the good work it has done, but also on the evils that it has prevented or mitigated. And, thus judged, the Bavin-Buttenshaw Composite Government emerges triumphant—justified of all Its works. .For our national safety, for the protection of our homes and farms, for all that we count of value in our lives, it is essential that the Lang party be not allowed to climb again on to the Treasury benches. Another Lang Government would be a calamity. It might very conceivably lead to civil war; it must inevitably result in financial collapse and the tottering of established institutions, with unemployment and misery for tens of thousands. We are now tottering on the brink of disaster. Thousands of companies and firms are holding on, fighting for breath, buoyed up by the one supreme hope that responsible government will be maintained. There has never been a more critical election, for the question before the electors is: Responsible government or rabble government; the Bavin-Buttenshaw administration with sane progress, or Lang and loot.”