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The Advertiser
ADELAIDE: TUESDAY.
APRIL 27, 1926.
THE QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS.
The unexpected always happens" is
a proverb to be found in most Euro-
pean languages, and it is eminently ap-
plicable to the general election which
will lake place ia Quwu-land on the
Sth ol" next month. Mr. Moore, the
leader ol" the Opposition, has not af
firmed that liis tack i? a liglit one, for
the change of opinion in the coo_titu
eni_i.es eince the last ejection mu_t be
congd^^J£_^l^ie^maicg|}:^p| fourteen,*
which the McCorhiack Government1
possessed in the la*t Parliament, is to be
wiped out. But in his speech at Bris
bane last week Mr. Moore was able to
state that he bad found decton at all
his meetings asking searching questions
about public finance. It is frequently
only ai election time* that people are
awakened from their apathy on mat-!
tens political, and even then, only when,!
as in'Quecnsland, they are driven, to the i
poll under threat of a legal penalty.
At other times there arc many to whom
it seems vain to expatiate on the crip-!
pling taxation endured by the State,
the lose of a million a. year on railways,
the heavy debts incurred in respect of
State enterprises, the expenditure of a
quarter of a million last year in unem
ployment relief, the ncceseiry the Gov
ernment have been under of writing off
many thousands in respect to soldier
settlements, and the transplantation of!
the "diggers" tx> soil more adapted for
small holdingg (the reason, of course,
being that someone—or more than one—
had blundered).
It is well if the electors can be
brought to listen even ence in three
1 years to the truth, but it is a little un
fair to their instructors that their warn
ings should be ignored at other times.
Taxation per haul of the population,
which stands at £t 9/2, ie higher than]
it ever was; but last year was not the!
first in which it could be aaid that the
people of Queensland were taxed more
heavily than those of any other State. |
For years past this statement has bad'
to be made. It cannot be said of suay.
State in the Commonwealth that its'
finances have been managed as they
should hare been anee the war. and in
the case of Tasmania, we have fast aeen,
from Uie report of an impartial investi-l
gator, bow near to bankruptcy ?fae ha*
been brought by actf-imposed burdens
that ehould never have been undertaken.
One would have thought that the
States, alike when the Great War began,
during its progress, and after its doae,
would have taken in every etitefc of
?superfluous sail and ridden out the atom*
under bare poles. But instead they
have gone through with spreading aw
ns, nnmindfnl of any rocks ahead. One
Queenfjand Minister daring the pment
campaign found justification for the
policy of the Government in the im
mense Eumc the people were inuaperout
enough to lavish on public auweimmte,
and in the £300,000 which 6*oo people
were able to spend during die last holi
days in tripa to Sydney. Their
pockets were staffed with note*, aad
their trunks with good dotfaes." A
State endowed with prou%ioue natwal
resources it not quickly rained, and the
lavish extent to which Qneendaad haa
availed herself of her borrowing powem
wul account for a. good deal of what
passes as prosperity. It is when the
figures are coldly anaiyEed, as they wen
by Mr. Moore in hie Brisbane speech,
that the direction in which Queensland
?s eteadOy drif tins under a Socialist re
gime becomes apparent. In 1915 the
State had the highest per capita pro
duction of any State in the Common
wealth, but it has fallen to fifth place.
In the five years immediately preced
ing the accession of Labor to power
Queensland held the first place in the
matter of continuous employment being
the only State which showed an increase
per lOiWO of its population. While
other States have exhibited during the
past decade an increase in the employ
ment ratio Queensland has shown a de
crease of oantinnona employment of
100 per 10,000 of her population.
As for the Savings Bank depoaite
—an unfailing index to aoaal cob-;
rliriimn Qiii i inland, which in Ml 5
boasted of an easeac of £33 compared
with the average of nH the 6tafa* to
gether, is now at the bottom of the fat,
and indeed is the only State with a de
crease.
The troth is tiattiieworlOT has eiineredl
because capital, the life-blood of industry,
has suffered. That capital h repelled
would matter less, as Captain Anthony'
Eden points oat in the **Yarkshire!
Poet," which be represented at the Em
pire Press Conference, if the Gorern
meot could successfully finww "*iuMr>.
But for reasons which the old ccono
miste long ago discovered, a Government
is always a bad trader. Industries under
political in?nmne will never thrive. It
is not for want of a long enough or ex
tensive enough trial that State enterprise
has in Queensland proved a disastrous
failure. For Socialism has been tried!
in quite a. number of buaneases, from
retailing fish to breeding cattle, and all
with the result of an accumnkted low
in 1824 of £723,796. Yet, unlike pri
vatcly-condueted industries, these State
enterprises were not handicapped by an
income tax. It is futile to insist that
the Joan moneys spent by the Labor
Government of Queensland are propor
tionately no greater than, those spent in
other States, because, as Mr. Moore
aptly replies, the question is "not how
mnch money has been epeni, bat how
it has been expended." Captain Edea
may be right in holding Qneenskad,;
with it* 670,800 equate mike, to be as
rich as any other State in Australia;I
but not even Queensland can afford a
public debt of £KOMfIM, of vmcai
SMfiOOfm is yidding bo return what
ever. It can, ac Mr. Moore sajs, bei
no enviable poat which he is seeking,!
far aotaiillmiiiHliiia: that tiTttinn faaa
*""?B?aBd by Ml per cent, ance the pre
?entGomMMot took offce. die mum
havo Ehowa anduag but debt and de
ficit. Even the nine months of the pie
sent finanraal year have rfi—ijtarf * 4V.
fiat of £871400, which fe not i/pteasant
heritage for a. new Goveniment, or a
pleasant prospect for the orer-oardened
taxpayer. But it ia not Gorenmst?
and Pariiaments only who are respon
sible for the financial trouble in Queens
land. The fault lies as much, or even
more, with the electors, who should not
have waited eleven yeais to realise that
there must be an end to all ependme
psecpt on what is absolutely necessary
That the Government could last vcar
in spite of all their previous reddest
ness, have presented, as Mr. Moote com
plains, "a measure requirine an addi
tional £250j000 without attempt?*
to nuke any provision for this
huge commitment," ought to leave
no doubt as to the results of the
voting. Yet the followers of the Govern
ment include more daring financiei* than
rhemseh-es. One of these, on the hust
ings, actually justified the railway de
ficits on the ground that tliey "repre
sented money which was better left to
fructify in the pockete of the people*
$