GOVERNOR AND PREMIER.

Waikato Times, Volume 110, Issue 18393, 29 July 1931, Page 6

GOVERNOR AND PREMIER.

Mr J. T. Lang, the Premier of New South Wales, is leading a campaign against Sir Philip Game, the 'State Governor. The spectacle is far from an edifying one. Sir Philip is satisfied that It Is not expedient to permit! Mr Lang to appoint sufficient members to the Upper House to ensure the passage of his legislation. The Premier claims that his Government is thoroughly representative of public opinion in the State, and that the action of the Governor In refusing' his ad.ylce, prevents the will of the people being paramount. What Mr Lang overlooks, however, is that his policy as proclaimed from the hustings before the election and his actions since Ids Recession to power differ widely on many salient points; in fact, it can be said without any stretch of the Imagination that the platform policy has been torn to shreds and replaced by one of quite a different character. It is more than possible that if Mr Lang went to the country on his recent record, the people would renounce him and his colleagues far more emphatically than they did their predecessors. This Sir Philip Game recognises, and he feels that Mr Lang’s proper course is to go to the country for the confirmation of the mandate he professes to hold. A Sydney paper thus sums up the matter: "If the Lang party in the Assembly believe that Sir Philip misinterprets public opinion, why do they not send the House to the country and thus secure an unequivocal mandate? Those brave words, all New South Wales knows, are the cowards’ bluff of a party that /shivers with fright at the merest contemplation of an election. Yes, ‘the people’s determination to govern themselves,’ and not any longer to be governed by a little group «£ irresponsibllea from the Trades Hall, is very real; and they are eagerly waiting for the moment when at the ballot-box they can unitedly say ‘Thumbs down 1’ and thus assure the summary punishment of men that have done the State sucli irremediable injury. Mr Lang can settle tho Upper House controversy when he pleases—by facing his masters."

if Mr Lang and his colleagues are as confident as they profess that they have the country overwhelmingly with them they should put it to the test, if their faith is honoured then they could unhesitatingly pursue their present course, for none—not ‘even tho State Governor—would presume to attempt to thwart them.