Curbing Lang

Once again unruly John Thomas Lang, Labor Premier of New South Wales, thumbed his big nose last week at the Commonwealth Government which is still trying to impound state taxes to pay off New South Wales's defaulted foreign debts. Australian newspapers announced that Premier Lang had capitulated and handed over the keys of the State tax offices to Commonwealth officers. Next morning they learned the truth. Sparring for time, John Thomas Lang had merely handed over a great bundle of lists of paupers in New South Wales.

It was almost his last trick. In Canberra Australia's Parliament passed laws seizing one-sixth of the new Sydney Harbor Bridge tolls, death duties, liquor and automobile taxes. Further, it rushed through a bill aimed straight at John Thomas Lang himself: any State official impeding the Commonwealth Government in the seizure of State revenues to meet defaults in the State's foreign debt is liable to a fine of $5,000 or three years' imprisonment.

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