Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1917 THE STATE ELECTIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 26 March 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star MONDAY, MARCH 26, 1917 THE STATE ELECTIONS.

In view of the political turmoil in Australia the results of the New South Wales elections are not without general interest. They promise a victory for the Nationalists, who consist of a fusion of the leaders of tbe original Labor party and the Liberals of the State. The Opposition is styled tbe Political Labor League, a party which refused to recognise tbe leaders of the Labor party, hitherto in power. The election has been a bitter one, in which the Political Laborites sought to resurrect the matter of conscription again. The Sydney Herald lately referring to the contest said that the verdict of the polls will not give the Federal Government a -mandate to do anything whatever in connection with war business or anything else. But, if it supports the National party, it will certainly show that this State is alive to certain political decencies that should be respected during a war in which not only our national standard of existence but also that existence itself is threatened. The leaders of the two great political parties of this State, for long antagonists, have considered that the position is so serions and is likely to last for so long that they would serve New South Wales and Australia and the Empire very ill if they continued to make our State PailiameDt the scene of partisan bickerings aud squabblings. Combination would mean more economical and more efficient administration ; combination could not fail to 'encourage reoruiting—for, at the best, legislators who confessed their inability to sink their petty and local disagreements in such a time as this could not but feel uneasy on a recruiting platform. The New South Wales coalition seemed the obvious and desirable thing. But ws reckoned withont the irreconcilable?, the extremists, the red do.triuaires who have invaded the labour movement, who

have succeeded in splitting it, and who drunken with success, are now ont to wreck everything else. It is hopeless even to understand their point of view, it is still more hopeless to attempt to justify it. The measure of their pclitioal bankruptcy can be gauged from the faofc that, despite official denials and the constitntional limitations of the jurisdiction of a State Government, the only issue on which they are prepared to fight this election is the utterly irrevalent one of oonsoription. The issues are plan enough. The National party can make its appeal confident both in its policy and its personnel If the Labour supporter asks in which camp the best of the Labour stalwarts are to be found the answer is on the side of the National Party. Here ar-e the pioneers of the Labour movement, men who have fought and worked and suffered for it, andßimply because they know what fighting means, know that when the arena is extended to the whole world tho need of combination becomes greater. The list of candidates shows how well Labotr (as distinct from the Political Labor League) has recognised the urgency of the situation ; veteran and neophyte are alike to be found in its ranks. The same thing is true of those candidates who formerly fought under the Liberal standard. The public knows these roeD, their record, their familiarity with the business of administration ; tbe Nationalist candidates are for the most part tried and proven in experience. The elected representative should be lsspon ibia to biß constituency and to no one else. The Opposition candidates will be responsible not to the country, not to their electorates, but simply and solely to a secret junta of tbs executive of the Political Labour Leagues, Tbe signed but undatad resignation need not be acfually in the pjekets of the executive ; the candidate is well aware that the tenure of his re it is limited to his “good behaviour” as construed by th 9 junta and by no one else Democracy wdl hiva coma to a aad pass if it has submitted its destiny to the machinations of a few nncomfortab'e gentlemen in comfortable quarters who manipulate it according to their own caprioe. In such circumstances democracy will be the name for the very worst form of tyranny. This is really tbe issue which is the principal one to be fought iu the elections. Of the respective policies of tbe two parlies litile need be said. The Opposition bag none. The Nationalists have embodied in their programme the measures of reform which are vital and are practicable in the present state of affairs. The Opposition has been left without a drum to beat. It has extricated itself from its dilemma in a characteristic fashion. It offers us a wake over the dead. Not content with its prowess in defeating in New bonth Wales the attempt to keep faith with our men in tbe trenches and our honour in the sight of onr Allies and of tbe neutral nations* it urges us to defeat afresh a _ y,effort to do our duty. And lest we should demand something fresher than these funeral baked-meats if bids us rejoice iu the expectation of revelry when it shall have borrowed som3 money from somewhere with which to moke merry. What a programme of dishonour and bankruptcy !