The Rev 



EDITED BY 



EVIEWS 



HENRY STEAD. 



JULY, 1913. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD. 



ederal Elections. 



extraordinary way in which an 

 electoral officer was able to keep all 

 Australia in suspense for a whole 

 week supplied a situation Gilbert would 

 have enthused over. The returning 

 officer himself can hardly be blamed; 

 he undoubtedl}' worked hard, but he 

 could surely have f been assisted in 

 counting the 3000 absentee votes of 

 the Hume division. Such an occur- 

 rence will never happen again, for so 

 equal a division of parties could not 

 well recur. The final results gave the 

 I Liberals 38 and Labour 37 members in 

 I the new House of "Representatives, 

 f Labour has twenty-nine Senators, the 



1 Liberals onlv seven. As soon as it was 



- 



evident that Sir William Lyne had no 

 hope of retaining his old seat, Mr. 

 Fisher handed his resignation to Lord 

 Denman. The Governor-General 



promptly sent for Mr. Cook, and 

 charged him with the format inn of a 

 Government. The new Prime Minister 

 did this with great dispatch, and with- 

 in a week of the resignation of the 

 Labour Government, Liberal Ministers 

 1 - >k charge of the great departments 

 of State. 



The Fate of the Referenda. 



The five questions submitted to the 

 electors, suggesting certain alterations 

 in the Constitution of the Common- 

 wealth, were all answered in the nega- 

 tive by varying majorities. The re- 

 turns are not yet complete. To date 

 they are as follows : — 



TOTALS FOR THE COMMONWEALTH. 

 Trade and Com- Yes. No. 



merce 921,745 957. 54« s 



Corporations 922,595 963,319 



Industries 923,546 962,745 



Railways 921,185 967,295 



Trusts 929,450 951,532 



Monopolies 881,412 919,582 



New South Wales, Victoria and Tas- 

 mania voted " No," the other three 

 States "Yes." Taken altogether, the 

 "No" majorities are relatively small, 

 and certainly give the Labour Party 

 ground for the confident assertion that 

 in view of the greal reduction in the 

 adverse vote this time compared tc 

 last, if the questions are put again they 

 will be carried. This may be so, but 

 actually the more one sees of State 

 ownership of railways, tramways, 

 steamships, etc., all over the world, 



/ 



