NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1926, Page 8

NEW SOUTH WALES ELECTION.

The one satisfactory result of the somewhat sordid bargainings in the ranks of the New South Wales Labour Government and its present and erstwhile supporters is that the Government has been forced to appeal to the country at an early date. The Labour Premier, Mr. Lang, has succeeded in retaining office until the election, but only by acquiescing in the demand of his former lieutenant, Mr. Loughlin, that an election should be held within thf next few months. With what that ex-Minister calls the "Communist domination of the Labour Party” to contend with, plus a deficit in last year’s finances, the party will find material for political window dressing wherewith to appeal to the electors is somewhat scanty. The thorny question of the Governor’s recall will probably be left severely alone, and seeing that a mandate from the electors can be claimed •by whichever party succeeds at the elections, the Governor’s course of action will be simplified. Meanwhile, despite the blessings of Labour in office, the institution of a State industrial commission, which is quite prepared to defy the Federal Arbitration Court, and a statutory 44-hour week, which has added enormously to railway freights and fares, the merry game of striking proceeds in its time-honoured way. The latest ebullition of union reasonableness, is the strike of crane workers at the port of Newcastle. As their action will affect the coalminers’ earnings it is probable that the strike will be short lived, but the hold-up of commerce that has already occurred will have to be paid for by the general community. Its record of muddled finance and industrial unrest, together with the party differences which are personal, and bitter, do not augur well for a successful Labour campaign. It is to be hoped, for the sake of the State, that anti-Socialists also will agree to sink their party differences, and thus end the misrule that has characterised the Labour administration.