UPROAR AND EARTHQUAKE.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1916, Page 10

UPROAR AND EARTHQUAKE.

I'KXDJNC! IN AUSTRALIAN POLITICS.

(Sydney Correspondent Lyttleton Times).

That- great changes are pending is certain, for wo now have the extraordinary spectacle of the Labor Party repudiating its leader, The immediate effect of this expulsion of Mr. Hughes is difficult to see. As. the labor organisations all over the Commonwealth are up in arms against him, one question that arises m what effect this will have on Labor members of the rank and file in the Federal Parliament? Will those who follow him be ea'st out also? Of course his expulsion cannot effect his position as a number of Parliament, but one would imagine- that it greatly weakens his position in caucus. Those members who depend for their political Jife on the support of the Labor organisations,,.will have to walk warily or they wil find themselves in the wilderness—for these organisations will be ruthless against those who defy them. A heavy vote at next month's plebiscite in favor of conscription will give the Labor politicians little comfort, for that will not be the vote they could hope to receive at a general election. It will be largely Liberal. And there is nothing more certain than that the anti-conscription vote is going to be large, for as the campaign has opened it seems clear to be one in which the real issue will be as between the Hughes following plus the Liberals on one side and the anti-Hughesites on th 3 other. Mr. Hughes has set Labor by the ears, and it is exceedingly doubtful now whether he dare attempt to address a purely Labor meeting in any large centre of population in the Commonwealth. He spoke to a meeting of Labor delegates in Sydney a week ago for the purpose of explaining his policy. From this meeting reporters were excluded, but it is known that Mr. Hughes got severely handled, and there was a very painful scene. On Monday evening Mr. Hughes returned to Sydney from Melbourne and addressed a public meeting at the Town Hall for the purpose of launching the phebiscite campaign. It was an enormous meeting and, wildly enthusiastic. Fully 4000 people were present, and a resolution supporting Mr. Hughes was carried with tremendous cheers. On the platform were leading members of the State Labor Ministry, of the Federal and State Opposition. But no good purpose would be served by hiding the fact—that admission was by ticket only and that the tickets were distributed by the Liberal organisation. Labor was not there—or at any rate, recalcitnvnt.Labor was not — and if there were 4000 citizens cheering Mr. Hughes inside, it cannot be denied that there were 8000 outside in the surrounding streets frantically cheering other people who were saying something very different from Mr. Hughes. All this may be unpleasant to hear about, but it is part of what is going on and has to be reckoned with, just as the, resignation of Mr. Tudor, the Minister of Customs, has to he. It may presage a "fuse" between the Hughes Labor wing and the Opposition Federal polities and the Holmanitcs and the Liberals in the State, That would be an exceedingly interesting experiment. I think it quite possible that something of CTTe kind may happen. But whether it does or not there is no getting away from this —• that Mr. Hughes and other "Labor politicians are having a mighty rough time, that they for the present are losing their grip on what supported them in the [iast, and that we have entered upon a 1 period of uproar and earthquake.