THE SITUATION IN QUEENSLAND

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 138, 6 March 1919, Page 8

THE SITUATION IN QUEENSLAND

Sir,—l have read in a recent issue of your paper a reply by the Hon. Randolph Bedford to an interview with mymyself published some weeks ago. I had fully expected from v. hat I heard of him in Queensland that the unofficial letter writer for the Queensland Government would rush into print both to justify his existence and his appointment to tho Upper House,'and to keep himself before tho public, but I fail to see why ho should have troubled yen with his rather undignified remarks even for a Queensland Labour legislator, when lie had. tho Press of his own country to tilt against.

Not only the Conservative but the Liberal newspapers in Queensland have printed and commented upon the interview in question with complete approval. Why does not Mr. Bedford, for example, reply to the Brisbane "Daily Mail," the leading Liberal newspaper in Queensland, which drew pointed attention to my remarks? May I be permitted to quote from its leading article, which Mr. Bedford conveniently ignores. After remarking that the impressions gathered by myself are not ei-lculated to do Queensland much good, the "Daily Mail" says:—. Thero was a time when' Queensland appealed to New Zealanders as a country' of splendid promise, and some of our most successful settlers 011 the land wore formerly farming in the Dominion. If Mr. Poison's impressions are given a wide publication in Now Zealand, we need not expect many more cottiers from that quarter. Certain adventurous gentlemen in search of Socialism (and possibly revolution) in our time may wish to ''come over and help us," but men of the class we really need are likely to give us a wide berth. The first thing that struck Mr. Poison was that the ideal in Queensland seemed to be the advancement of Labour without the advancement of the country as a whole—a new proposition, upsetting all Euclid's theories, to the effect that the part is greater than the whole.

In striking endorsement of my views tho "Daily Mail" admits it to be a fact that Queensland,, which not long since was legarded as "the coming State"—a country of illimitable possibilities—is now a State which men and corporations having money to invest consider a good place to keep out of. It is, it admits, not a prospect that pleases. It admits also to being only too painfully aware that I am not alone in the conclusions at which I arrived.

"■ 011 December 10 (tho "Daily Mail" proceeds)'we published the reply of a firm of Melbourne agents to a communication sent by a leading Brisbane firm of stock and station agents who had sent a list of Queensland properties in the hope of finding some buyers. Tho reply—or part of it—was as follows:—"We may mention that, owing to the vagaries of your legislators, investors here are not anxious to invest at present in Queensland." The words "at present", sufficiently indicate the trouble. A.Labour Government is in power in Queensland, and its avowed objective is the nationalisation of the means of production,- distribution and. exchange. Mr. Eyan himself has'said it. The .words run trippingly from the tongue. They catch the ear of tho unthinking working man. They seem to speak of the millennium. And in the result we find capital . shy; we find business men afraid to . launch out in new enterprises; and wo find the occupation of many others gone giving to the competition of the State." "The State," so far as Queensland is concerned, has come to take on a new meaning; it no longer represents the' people as a whole and their welfare and prosperity, it no longer stands for the protection of all persons who live and move and have their being in it—it is now something that comes into competition with the people at the behest of a section which loudly proclaims: "We are the people." The part is greater than the whole! What will . happen when these people find that they have milked the cow dry and that ' 110 ,11101'e money is being invested in the State iremains to be seen. As a matter of fact, however, we do not believe that it will be seen, for the simple reason that, having had a. taste of what Socialism means, there is not much chance of .mother Socialist Government getting into power for a, very long time to come. The country looks to its Parliament to be honest, for one thing, and a. Parliament which treats soienin contracts entered into by the Stoteas "scraps of paper" to be torn up or burnt if it should suit some Government, but as something gacrcd and not to be touched by the other party to (he contract, must itself 'be scrapped, like the Hun whose methods it copies.

In short, your Brisbane contemporary frankly, concedes that "what Mr. l'olsoa says is nh 100 true," adding: Here in Queensland, where Labour is in power, there is more industrial trouble than in any other State - in Australia. We live in a state of chaotic unrest. As soon as one strike is, over another breaks out, and very often we have several strikes proceeding merrily at the same time. -.While employers aro only allowed to have it ono way, the Trades Hall section demands it both ways—if arbitration does not give it what it wants, then it strikes, And while this sort of thing goes on there is not much hope for Queensland. The sorriest thing about it all is tlmt, instead of showing a change for the better, matters have recently been taking a turn for the worso. Bolshevism is raising its head in Queensland, and the menace is 6erious. At the same time, wo do not imagine, as ou.r New Zealand critic seems to do, that there is going to be "civil war in Queensland. With his 6tateniont, however, that, in its anxiety to exploit capital, Labour is frightening it out'of the country, bankrupting the Stale and its future, we most certainly do agree—"it is neither helping the realisation of Labour's legitimate ideals, uor adding to the- dignity and enlightenment of Labour's cause." When the leading Liberal papers in his own Slate so emphatically disagree with Mir. Hedford it seems to mo waster of hia time to wonry about New Zealand. There is ample scope for his cnorgies in Queensland.—l aui, etc., W. J. I'OLSON. Ford ell, March 4.