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Hokitika Guardian, 10 March 1927, Page 2

The Premier of New South Wales is meeting with numerous reverses these times. He has been worsted in the •struggle to dominate the Governor, and in the efforts to impose .special taxation on the newspapers. How many relinks he has received in the House it would he difficult to say. off hand. Now the Labor caucus has taken him in hand. A telegram on Tuesday stated the Caucus turned down Mr Lang's suggested increase- of the basic wage which he proposed to force through the Assembly and decided to refer it back to the industrial commissioner and let him fix a new basic wage. It is understood tin' opposition of tbe Caucus also resulted in Mr Lang abandoning his intention to impose a tax on. newspaper advertisements in place of the halfpenny tax on newspapers recently declared constitutional. These defeats it might be expected would touch the self-resixiet of the Premier who would prefer to lead rather tlin.ii he led. But. it is not so, Mr T.aiig is still hanging on to office by the slender thread of a precarious majority. Mr Lang certainly looks very foolish in regard to his failure with the newspaper tax. the more so ns he admitted when the result of the High Court decision was made public, that he had been warned in advance of the legal position by his advisers, yet he persisted in enforcing something which he knew to he unconstitutional. The admission places Mr I-ang in the worst light lie has appeared in yet. However. one reason why he was not disconcerted by the High Court decision was that lie had something else up his sleeve to take the place of the tax on the big newspapers—that was to impose a tax on newspaper advertisements. But the cable news told 11s the other evening that the. opposition to the proposal in the caucus caused the Premier not to attempt, to produce his latest proposal “from his sleeve.” Opposition in the Caucus carried with it

defeat in the House owing to the slender majority, and on this occasion the Premier practices discretion which he will find the better part of political valour. But it has got to he realised that the Government is in need of more funds, and it seeks to find them somewhere. Mr Lang, we presume, will turn elsewhere before long in his effort to balance his Budget, but it is clear that in the interim he must be exhausting the patience and appreciation of his admirers by so often mistiltilig in the political arena. Yet. with a pledged majority such as be has, it is still possible for him to pursue the strange- course he attempts, despite the frequency of his defeats and setbacks. Such are the vagaries of polities in Yew South Wales.