Compulsory Registration.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18222, 5 November 1924, Page 8

Compulsory Registration.

Had we thought that the Government intended to ask Parliament to pass the Legislature Amendment Bill, we should have protested much more strongly than we did against the monstrous proposal that any person eligible to vote at a Parliamentary election shall be fined if he neglects to register within a certain time, _ and the equally outrageous provision of a penalty for anyone who changes his address without notifying some public official or other. What the Government hopes to achieve by these provisions we do not know, though it was suggested when the Bill was introduced that compulsory registration would save the country anything up to fifteen thousand, pounds trienially in election expenses. We shall be surprised if there is a saving of half this amount, or indeed of any amount at all, since an enormous number of electors will fail to obey, and the country will be over-run with inspectors and pestered with prosecutions. ' But if tho community saved twice as much in money as the Government says it will the proposal would still be an offence. We arc so hedged about with regulations now that to be asked to surrender another liberty is more than can be submitted to calmly. Who would be benefited by such interference? We can think of no one but an official or two, and certainly of no one who deserves to be helped. If a man does not choose to vote he suffers whatever hardship it may be to obey laws made by men ho has not chosen; but he either wishes to endure that or it is an infliction that he is not entitled to escape. Yet he may have a perfectly good reason for not wishing to participate in elections, and if he has it is iniquitous to punish him if he does not register. For the registration of electors is not like the taking of a census. There are moderately good reasons for compelling each individual to supply the statistical information required of him from time to time by the Census Office, but there is no reason for compelling anyone to register as an elector if he doe's not intend to vote. It is astonishing that Parliament has passed this Bill without even questioning these extraordinary provisions.