Vol. XXIX.. No. 6. 



DECEMBER i, 1906. 



The Rev 



EVIEWS 



HQVITABLE BVJKI>IT<G, MELBOUHKB. 



THE HISTORY OF THE MONTH, 



Vote! 



Melbourne, November loth. 



The Federal elections are upon us. 



Those who have neglected their 

 opporturtities to get on the roll are 



hopelessly out of it for the coming 

 election. But it is not everyone who is on the roll 

 who takes the trouble to vote. At the last Federal 

 elections the percentage of those who took the 

 trouble to take an interest in the Government of the 

 country was very, very low. It is sincerely to be 

 hoptd that this year that reproach will be removed 

 from us. Australian electors ought to take the 

 trouble to go to the polls. We are regarded as the 

 most democratic country in the world, and it is a 

 standing disgrace to us that we do not make better 

 use of our privileges. Vote, no matter what side you 

 are on, but vote. 



The Federal campaign for the 



jhe coming elections on December 12th 



Elections. is in full swing. Rarely has there 



been introduced into an election 

 such an amoimt of bitterness. The leaders of both 

 sides have dug up the old bone of contention which 

 caused so much bitterness when Mr. Reid went out 

 of office. People would have been glad to have for- 

 gotten it, and one questions whether the columns of 

 letterpress in the daily papers which are being de- 

 voted to this old source of trouble are read. It is 

 looked upon more in the light of a personal dis- 

 pute, and the public becomes very sick of public 

 matters into which matters of private quarrel enter. 

 The interests of neither party are going to be fur- 

 thered by it. ■ It is another illustration of the way in 

 which important political interests are pushed aside 

 in order to gratify personal feelings, and forms an- 

 other strong argument why we should do away with 

 partv government. But it evidently takes a lot of 

 nausejius medicine to make a national stomach turn. 

 It has sw^allowed all the unpalatableness of three 

 partv Governments without flinching, in spite of its 

 unp'.easantness, and the dose of unsatisfactory poli- 

 tics will have to be increased in size and bitterness 

 before the country demands the abolition of party 

 Government. Both Mr. Deakin and Mr. Reid are 



Melbourne Punch.2 The Dirty Kick-Out. 

 The MrLE : " of course I love you, Alf ., but really y.iu w^re 

 in my way." 

 (The Mule is br.tnded ■■ Labour Party."; 



urging electors (and no one can blame them) to sub- 

 scribe to their programmes. But the third party 

 has arisen, and is a force to be reckoned with, and 

 no power on eart'h can prevent the triangular posi- 

 tion in Parliament. An elective Ministry is the 

 solution of the trouble, as w-ell as being the only 

 thing that will put out of politics the personal bitter- 

 ness which Government bv party engenders. 



The elections are bringing some sur- 

 Labour prises, not the least of which is the 



Independence, fact that the Labour Party is oppos- 

 ing Mr. Deakin. Indeed, the La- 

 bour Party seems as anxious to put the Deakin Part)' 

 out as it is to keep the Reid Party out. This is 

 quite contrary to the expectations of a good many, 

 who imagined that as relations had been somewhat 

 harmonious between the Government and the 

 Labour Party, the latter would decline to put candi- 

 dates in the field against any of decidedly liberal 

 views. But it is evidently a war, and a war to the 

 death, the Labour Partv refusing to accept an\ thing 

 in the nature of the smallest compromise, and the 

 result will be watched with the keenest interest. 

 How the elections will eventuate no one can dare to 



