Political preferences in the new middle class: A ‘correspondence analysis’ of the orientations of Australian professional workers

Most discussions of the relationship between class and political orientation assume a coherent and homogeneous class response. Here, the new middle class of professional workers is disassembled into constituent occupations. An analysis of political preference data by means of ‘correspondence analysis’ reveals a pattern which is consistent with a structural relationship between occupational experience and political preference.     

1. New South Wales and Victorian Politics

Ernie Chaples and Helen Nelson (eds), Case Studies in New South Wales Electoral Politics, Sydney, Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Sydney, 1985, pp. 109. $8.50 ($9.50 posted) (paper)

Ernie Chaples, Helen Nelson and Ken Turner (eds), The Wran Model: Electoral Politics in New South Wales 1981 and 1984, Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1985, pp.289. $14.99 (paper)

Brian J. Costar and Colin A. Hughes (eds), Labor to Office: The Victorian State Election 1982, Melbourne, Drummond, 1983, pp.293. $17.95 (paper)

P.R. Hay, J. Halligan, J. Warhurst and B. Costar (eds), Essays on Victorian Politics, War‐mambool, Warrnambool Institute Press, 1985, pp.210. $9.00 (paper)     

Sapwood estimates in the interpretation of tree-ring dates

Many timber finds lack some or all of the outer, sapwood rings formed in the years just before felling. In order to estimate felling date once the outermost remaining ring has been dated, it is necessary to estimate the number of sapwood rings originally present. Methods doing this for oak are reviewed in the light of an intensive study of living trees at one site and an extensive study of 175 samples from living trees in North Wales and northwest England. Some methods reported in the literature are found to be invalid. A method reported by Hollstein (1965) is most reliable, with modifications for known variations in sapwood number with position in the tree. At present the best available estimate is that a value of 30 sapwood rings be used (95% confidence limits: 19–50).