LABOUR GOVERNMENT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4564, 16 May 1923, Page 3

LABOUR GOVERNMENT.

STATE ENTERPRISE IN QUEENSLAND. NOT A SUCCESS. Conversing with a “ Palmerston North Standard ” reporter on various aspects of the Labour Govern- ■ Went which Queensland possesses, the Rev. Frederick,’ of the Brisbane Methodist Church, stated- that Mr. Theodore, the State Premier, was a capable man and a strong leader. The Labour Regime in, the Northern State had admittedly secured better and. much needed improved conditions for lower paid workers. The Government, however, had not ' been equally successful with its • State enterprises, and Queensland as a whole had suffered in consequence. The railways, for the past seven years during which they had been under the Labour administration had showed a deficit of £7,000,000 to It bad, in fairness, to be stated that the other states also showed a debit in this connection. With the exception of its insurance venture, the Government’s enterprises had not been payable propositions. The great natural resources of the State had, however, enabled it to forge ahead. , MR. THEODORE’S DECLINE. During recent years Mr. Theodore’s majority had been growing smaller, and recently became so insignificant that extraordinary legislation had had to be passed to enable voting by proxy, and thus allow the Government to cany on. It was a fact to be deploredttiat the Communistic element was becoming an extremist faction, the danger of b which was being realised by the more thinking type of working man, and in his opinion there was destined to be a “ swing of the pendulum ” in an anti-Communistic direction?