ELECTION STRUGGLE IN QUEENSLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 March 1918, Page 4

ELECTION STRUGGLE IN QUEENSLAND.

a. hitter campaign. SYDNEY, Feb. 19. Queensland, quite suddenly, is in the throes of a bitter election campaign. It was generally known that the general election is about due, but it was expected that the date would be some time in April. The Labour Cabinet met the other day, However, and fixed March 16th. This sent members scampering off to their electorates, and, as there are electorates in Queensland whose communications might compare with Taumnrumu or Bay of Plenty, there is considerable scampering to lie done in the next two or three weeks.

Hie Ryan Government lias held office since the last election. Everyone knows that it is a combination .of extreme Socialists—its deeds have made it famous, ft would lie unfair to call it an anti-war administration; it is more accurate to call it lukewarm in regard to the war. It sneers openly at the Win-thc-War Nationalist Government, led by Mr Hughes. Since it took office, the Ryan Government has certainly accomplished a great deal. State .cattle-stations, State butcher shops, State mines, State factories of" various kinds have been established, and private concerns of the same kind have suffered accordingly. So that, among the business classes, there is bitter resentment, and the election struggle is quite openly developing into a fight between the supporters of the Socialist State, controlling all trade, and those who believe in Die operation of' properly-controlled private enterprise.

/■ The Labourites appear to be anxious. They swept the polls at last election—due first, t« a great stimulation of tlie Labour idea about that time and, second, to public disgust ot a course of muddling Labour administration. Since then, they have put their Socialist schemes ruthlessly into operation, and. in the doing, have made a thousand enemies. Their implacable resolve, for, instance, to tax the private ownership ef land out of. existence has antagonised great numbers of small farmers. At the last. Federal Election, when the issue was Labour versus-Na-tionalism \(otherwisG the HughesLiberal combination), Queensland show od a substantial majority for the Nationalists. At the same time, a vote was taken on the Labour proposal to abolish the Legislative Council—one of the Labour i Cabinet’s main planks—and the electors, by a large majority, rejected the plan. Since then Queensland has voted strongly against conscription—and the Ryan Government, is quite, enthusiastically anti-conscription. So that the position is rather difficult to' judge. The campaign is going lo he a lively one, however. The Liberals (now the Nationalists) are scornful and contemptuous towards the Labourites, and the latter are displaying the characteristic Bolshevik, towards all who are not with them.