SOCIALIST EXPERIMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1135, 19 August 1913, Page 4

SOCIALIST EXPERIMENTS.

FAILURE IN WEST AUSTRALIA.

In the course of the debate on the Address-in-Reply in the West Australian Legislative Assembly, last week, Mr Wilson, Leader of the Opposition, said that the Government was going to startle its opponents. Recently Mr Scaddan (the Premier) had told the Trades Hall he would astonish his supporters. Mr Wilson said he was startled at the drift in the finances. The Government had embarked on a policy of Socialistic competition. The experience with the State steamers should have warned Ministers. The Government had opened additional meat shops, but the small cattle man had not been benefited, and the consumer did not get cheaper meat. The State sawmill was making poor progress in connection with the Government contract to supply trans-Australian sleepers, starting next January, at the rate of 60,000 sleepers a month. It would be impossible to give the supply, and the Government would be penalised for the non-delivery. The Government had bought the machinery of the defunct South Australian Company for agricultural implement works. The machinery had been in use 12 years. The incapacity of Ministers was shown by not purchasing a modern plant. Agricultural works were being erected in the honorary Minister’s electorate of North-East Freemantle, though the best advice declared Bunbury the most suitable site. If the Government did not recognise the serious position, the future of the State was imperilled.