26 OCTOBER 1929, Page 2

The New Australian Government On Tuesday Mr. Scullin, the Australian

Labour leader, formed the new Commonwealth Government. When we wrote last week the final figures of the General Election which overwhelmed Mr. Bruce and the Nationalist Party were not yet known. It was not even quite certain that Mr. Bruce himself had lost his seat. Now we know that Labour has 45 seats, the Nationalists 12, the .Country Party 10, the Independent Nationalists 4, and the Pro- gressives 1. Mr. Bruce himself was not returned. The new Government has been constituted from a list of names provided by the Labour Party—a strange extra-Parlia- mentary method which was proposed for this country by some members of the Labour Party, but was unwelcome to Mr. MacDonald. As the complexion of the new Com- monwealth Government is moderate it may be taken that the whole Labour Party is sensible of the critical future for Australia, particularly in regard to finance, and is averse from recklessness in any form.