ONE MAN ONE VOTE

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1470, 19 June 1912, Page 5

ONE MAN ONE VOTE

BRITISH FRANCHISE.

THE UNIVERSITY REPRESENTATION TO GO-

REMOVAL OF ANOMALIES. By TelesMßli-frees Association-Copyrient. (Rec. June 18, 9-30 p.m.) London, June IS. The Franchise Bill has been read a first tirao in the House of Commons. Mr. Pease, President of tho Board of Education, in introducing the Bill, explained that it provided for a qualification of six months' continuous rcsidenco for all men over twenty-one years of age. Removal from oia< electorate to another would not interfere with tho right to vote, but. if a. voter allowed his name to appear on hyo registers ho would be fined ,£2OO or a gear's imprisonment. The abolition of plural voting would reduce tho number of electors on the register by 525,000, tho abolition of university representation also reducing it by ■49,614. On tho other hand, two and a half million votes would be added owing to the continuous register.

If tho franchise were extended to women on the same terms, continued Mr. Pease, it would add another ten and a half millions to the rolls. He admitted that the case for a redistribution of seats was unanswerable.

The Unionist papers approve the simpler franchise, but demand that it shall bo accompanied by redistribution, which is the greater anomaly.

"The Times" states that the Government intends to proceed with the Bill sufficiently to allow of a Women's Suffrage amendment being moved in Committee.