TREND OF OPINION. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1911, Page 9

TREND OF OPINION. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

THE POSITION REVIEWED. (From our Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, 29th March. The Continuous Ministry of New Zealand is even more wonderful than it appears. Subject to correction, it seems j to have surpassed colonial records save that of the former Mowat Ministry in Ontario, though the Ministerial press ' might make useful play with an exact statistical enquiry leading to a proud oonclusion and an urgent-moral. There is small chance of Australian rivalry, lor already the see-saw is rising against Labour, though it is still too early to prophesy what will happen at the next election. » Students of British politics have always to take into account the phenomenon called " the swing of the pendulum." The phrase may become common in Australia, where advanced Liberalism fairly balances le«s advanced Liberalism. Conservatism, under the" whip of adult suffrage, remains rather as an instinct than as an active force ; the only Conservatives left in Australia belong to the dying generation. The- Labour policy is really no more than a policy of aggressive Liberalism : its root and kernel are still the invention of fifty ways of taking by State force the surplus goods and boons of the Haves and handing them over to the Have-Nots. Property remains the keynote of policy, though the note is found farther down the keyboard. The stress falls now upon labourers' property instead of upon landlords, and the dream of every labourer his own landlord comes always nearer realisation. As poverty acquires property, the other dream of Communistic Socialism recedes farther and farther. The small man with the four-roomed cottage on the quarter-acre allotment is more dangerous to Marxian dogma than any millionaire. PUBLIC OPINION. The generic Australian is more sensitive than the New Zealander to political winds and currents — more sensitive and more fickle. This is due to the political preponderance of the comparatively huge cities. In the country, where avocations are settled, and profit depends on a regular line of action, partisans are likely to be as steadfast as in New Zealand. In the cities', salaries and wages are scarcely influenced by the success of this or that party. Ihe fixity of the conditions of dependence leaves wider room for the play of opinion. In. the -country the uncertainty of the conditions of independence leaves lesser room for the play of opinion. A farmer cannot change his motives of political action. His want of light taxes, cheap labour, and easy access to good market* is unvarying. His vote is cast for him by his needs. The city worker for wages may cast his vote by pique or prejudice, -whim or foible, and be not a penny the worse. Free opinions and regular pay-days go together. ' Ihe Australian city reaction to political changes is almost unanimous. Tt goes a Jeeser or greater distance, according to personal preconceptions ; but it goes in the same direction whatever the preconceptions. Labour rule and Labour solidarity do not alter this. When the recent Labour conference bitted and bridled the State Labour opponents of the Federal Labour seizure ] of State privileges, I found just the same opinion among the railway workers j as among the men who ride in first-class railway carriages. Most of the former may vote "a' referendum "Yes," most of the latter will vote a referendum "No." That does not affect the equal instinctive response to the mandate issued by the conference at the bidding of the country labourers— the A.W,U. The restraint is held excessive, a breach of fair play. Rebellious Mr. Holmah. lias many sympathisers among the men who will vote him out of the Labour party when called upon. They think him wrong ; but they do not think he is rightly treated. He should receive all the advantages, and then be cast out. LABOUR'S PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT. Even from the Labour point of view, it remains an open question whether the labourers get greater profit from & Labour Government, or from an antiLabour Government that is bullied into giving by the dread of a Labour Government. Non-Labour Governments in Victoria and New South Wales established wages boards that have put directly hundreds of thousands of pounds into labourers' pockets. Nearly all the Federal pro-Labour legislation has come from a non-Labour Government. The Labour Government in South Australia has so far done little or "nothing directly advantageous to labourers. Apart from the command of the executive, which, of course, turns the scale, it is not at all clear that a strong Labour Opposition is. not more I profitable to Australian labourers than j a. strong Labour Government. Because a strong Labour Government is always in danger of being pushed too far, so causing a, revulsion of opinion that will bar further Labour progress, and possibly for a long period. So far, the Federal Labour Government has been cautious and discreet. The referendum claims are the first sign of an excessive use of power. There is- no Labour answer to the fair contention that the transfer of authority over all trade and all industry from the States to the Commonwealth, if it is to be made, should be made by degrees — retail instead of wholesale — upon specific proof that every transfer is necessary and that the Commonwealth is ready for every transfer; and upon a specific vote for every transfer. The contention is admitted fair by the popular opinion of which I have spoken ; though Labour voters argue that if the direction is right, the vehicle and the speed of the vehicle are less important. The opposition to the Labour urgency is not an opposition to legislation to restrain trusts or to increase Federal industrial powers. The first kind of legislation certainly, and the second kiM probably, would win virtually an allAustralian approval. The opposition is to a. transfer of huge aaid indefinite powers, fl-hich may tie ased in a loose and indefinite manner, uoon a vote so framed as to compel the inefficient use of the franchise. STANDING STDLL MEANS RETROGRESSION. The mode and measure of the referendum count as the first bad mark against the Commonwealth Labour Government. The second bad mark amounts really to the Government's failure to accumulate good marks. Mr. Fisher, as Prime Minister, has justified prognos-i tication. He is still popular, his good character is still esteemed, but he has not the intellectual force to impress himself strongly upon the public mind. His speeches lack intellectual significance. Ho is being set aside and .forgotten. When, he went to South Africa, he was not missed : when he goes to the Coronation ho will go further to the political rear. It is unlikely that he will be able to retake his place in the van ; his own party is beginning to look upon him as a mere figurehead. Mr. Hughes also is falling short of the public demand. His qualities as a faction leader are not the best requisites for the commanding figure in the sphere i of statesmanship that the country waate

without knowing what it wants. The narrowness of his keen mind has become more evident. Though it stands in the same place, the Labour Party is losing ground because it does not gain ground. True, there are still two years in which to recapture success at the next election.