The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15. FEDERAL POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 99, 15 April 1908, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15. FEDERAL POLITICS.

Politically Australia within recent years ' lias evidenced an almost total inability h lo prolit from experience, and the portion of the Federal as well as most ol ] the .State Governments remains unstable . and precarious. At the present moment I Australia is practically governed according to the whims of a minority —me Labor party—who, although escaping ' the responsibilities of. ollice, are able, under the three-party system, to jeopardise the existence of a Government that does not humor Labor's ambitious. While the attitude adopted hy .Mr. Dcakin has occasioned little siirprisi—it was Ihhiikl to come sooner or later—-bis decision to retire from the Premiership will lie generally regretted, particularly as the divisional defeat which he chose to treat as a censure motion scarcely seemed to amount to a vote of no-contideuce in his leadership. It would seem, however, that Air. Deakiu, tired of the hampering restrictions obviating the free anvancemenl of his policy, had determined to seek tue lirst available opportunity of escaping from a disheartening position, hi the case of the Federal Parliament, there appears to be only one solution of the problem of government by a safe majority—an alliance between Air. Dcakin and Air. Reid; but all previous suggestions and attempts at its realisation have ended in failure. Willi the tariff disposed of this session, however, it does not appear that there would remain any insunnountaole barriers to arriving at a mutual basis of co-operation. The fact that Labor has made such strides politically in Australia may be taken as a proof that Labor sentiment i-> strong in the minds of the electors, and as such the party cannot be ignored; but it is decidedly auoiualous that the actions of Government after Government -hould continue to be controlled by an irresponsible minority. It matters not whether that minority be Labor, Liberal, or Conservative, it must continue to act as a clog on the wheels of progress, and ill Australia as a retarder of the speedy evolution of nationhood towards which the furemo.it Federal statesmen are striving. Enough of opposition to the policy of nationbuilding besets the Federal Government from anti-Federalists and the smaller politicians of the States, without these latter being aided by the inability of the Federal Government to help itself. The spectacle is not an inspiring one, but what, appears to he generally over looked is that no one really gains under the arrangement. Labor, although looming larger on the political platform of Australia, has not accomplished one tithe of the genuine advance made by the party in New Zealand, where cooperation, and not coercion, has represented the relationship between the Government and the Labor parly. The experience of Australia should be a. warning to uiosc political free-lances who have at various times endeavored to bring about the three-party system in New /.calami. The lesson at the present time is particularly applicable lo l.alnir. a section of which'is cndoauiring to -el up a standard of its own around which to rally lb,. Socialists ami ultra-Lahuriles as a' distinct parly in publics, We cannot imagine such a contretemps arising ill New Zealand politics as has occurred in Australia, and not for long would such a position, were it to arrive, be tolerated. Labor has everything to gain by continuing to identify itself with the Liberal party; alone it could accomplish nought.