BEATEN BY TWO VOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1939, Page 5

BEATEN BY TWO VOTES

NEW SOUTH WALES GOVERNMENT

On Motion by Former Minister PREMIER APPARENTLY NONPLUSSED DISSOLUTION OR NEW CABINET IN PROSPECT (By Telegraph.—Press Association— Copyright.) SYDNEY, August 3. In the Legislative Assembly this afternoon the Stevens Government was defeated by 43 votes to 41 on the motion of the former Minister of Works and Local Government, Mr Spooner, which the Premier treated as one of censure. The House immediately adjourned till Tuesday to enable the Government to consider the position. Ten United Australia Party members, otherwise Government supporters, crossed the floor ol the House, and also one Independent member voted for the motion. The Government’s defeat was cheered even in the galleries, which were crowded out. A large crowd outside also cheered. It was quite evident that the Premier is not. politically popular in certain quarters. Mr Stevens himself was nonplussed by the vital verdict, and left Hie chamber dispiritedly. The tenor of today’s debate was acrimonious, several Government supporters indulging in biting criticism ol the Premier’s dictatorial methods. The question of whether a dissolution will be granted or whether Mr Spooner or the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Lang, will be commissioned to form a new Ministry, will be decided later tonight. Air Spooner, who for long had been termed the political twin of the Premier, due to their lengthy terms in Cabinet and particularly close and friendly association with each other, left the Cabinet several weeks ago as a result of a dispute over the Government’s relief works policy and a decision to place some of Air Spooner’s powers under the control of a commission. In the Assembly on Wednesday Air Spooner, attacking Air Stevens’s financial policy, submitted a motion recommending a new policy for 1939-40. In the course of his reply to bitter criticism by Air Spooner, the Premier announced that he had decided to regard the motion as one of direct censure on the Government. Air Spooner repudiated the censure suggestion, and said that his motion represented an attempt to offer constructive assistance.