Government is once again in office, and the Legislative Assembly is in the state of chaos with "which we have been familiar in the past-The New South Wales Assembly has always been a rather rowdy body—whether it is the atmosphere of the great port or the propinquity of the great collieries which is the cause, it is impossible to say. In the-present case the Labour party hold exactly one-half the seats, though a few of their number are so-called independents, or, to be more exact, extremists who were expelled the party during the elections. The other half of the House consists of Nationalists and Progressives. If the Labour party put one of their number into the Speaker's chair their control of the House was gone, but, as is not unusual, there was found a Nationalist who could be tempted with the handsome perquisite attached to that office. There was naturally a scene when the Nationalist was being elected to the chair, and to Opposition cries of "traitor" Mr. Storey. the new Premier. retaliated that if he had advertised the job he would have been rushed with applications from the Nationalist group.
The new Governnient contains no single member who has held office, and it has received, as the Premier puts it, only half a mandate from the people. However. it has lost no time in doing what it can to assert itself, It found that certain honours had been recommended bs the late Premier. Mr. Holman—ono that Sir George Fuller should be made a baronet. This recommendation was at once cancelled, and possibly some of the other recommendations also. Doubtless the new Government was within its rights. but it made the mistake of talking about its action, and thus making it apparent that the honours bestowed by the King were regarded as gifts to extend or and refuse to handle his. letters; withhold by the political party for the moment in office. Mr. D. Hall, ex-Minister of the Holman Cabinet, was on his way to take up the position of Agent-general in London. The Storey Government has cancelled the appointment, and Mr. Hall will probably return to Australia to fight at law for compensation.
The incendiarists, who as members of the Industrial Workers of the World tried to burn out Sydney in 1917, and were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for conspiracy, have always been regarded by the extreme Labour members as martyrs to the cause of the proletariat. The Independents referred to above were pledged to release these men. The new Government, depending upon the Independents for its tenure of office, has promised a review of the trial of these scoundrels. They have already been tried before a Supreme Court Judge and convicted; their case has been re-heard before another judge, and the conviction sustained. There is now to be yet another re-hearing, as the price of the support of these Independents. It is in this way that the extremists work, and succeed, unless the Gov-vernment is strong enough and, one must add, honest enough to resist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.