WHERE LABOUR FAILED.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2430, 18 May 1922, Page 2

WHERE LABOUR FAILED.

IN an editorial on Australian politics the Auckland Herald says:— “The fall of the Labour Government in New South Wales as the result of the recent election appears to herald the commencement of a new cycle in Australian politics. . . . .The development of whiit is potentially the greatest of all the Australian States lias been checked by the veiled antagonism of Labour to systematic immigration and by the quarrel which it picked with London capitalists, and taxation has reached a level which even in these abnormal times is arresting. . . .

In Queensland, as in New South Wales, the passing of Labour will produce a general sense of relief which can scarcely he appreciated by New Zealanders who have not learned by personal experience how seriously Labour rule in Australia has undermined public confidence and how far it has restricted private enterprise. It would be unsafe to speculate on the political future beyond saying that for the next few years the administration of most parts of Australia will be in the hands of men of moderate political views: Political Labour in Australia set out to defy economic law. It sought to maintain, and even raise, wages on a falling market. It aimed continuously at a higher standard of living and great leisure, while neglecting to secure the greater production which alone would make these eminently desirable ideals realis-

able. In other words, Labour has encouraged Australians to consume more than they produce, with the result that an impossible situation has been created, which Labour has neither the capacity to control nor the ability to remedy. It is natural that Wider such circumstances the electors should turn to men who appreciate elementary economic law and who have the experience in affairs requisite for an overhaul of State finance and a reorganisation of the administrative departments. The problems with which New Zealand has been wrestling for a year, such as the adjustment of wages to the cost of living and the reduction of public expenditure, have in several States of Australia scarcely yet been considered, and this is the first and most pressing task confronting Ihe several Governments.”