NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2312, 20 November 1914, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

The Wardist newspaper in Auckland is very angry because The Dominion rebuked it for belittling of the Australian cruiser Sydney- in' bringing the destructive career of tho Emden to an end. The Star accuses us-of misrepresenting its views, but we quoted its own words, so that our readers could judge for themselves, and our contemporary makes no attempt to show how any other conclusion can be drawn from them than that which we sot forth. .It states that it was not prepared to learn that the protest it uttered against "the flagrant attempt to exaggerate the exploits of the Australian warships ... was to be manipulated into ' a pretext for charging us with lack of patriotism or loyalty." What we drew attention to was tho Star's flagrant attempt to belittle the exploit of the Sydney, simply because it' could be used as a striking argument in favour of a naval policy with which the Wardists have no sympathy. The Sydney's splendid achievement evoked the enthusiastic applause of tho wholo British world. To our Auckland contemporary belongs the unenviable distinction of disparaging the episode as ah "accidental' fact' of no special importance or significance. This is pushing the party spirit to its. extremest limits, and merits 'the- severest condemnation. The Star' endeavours to divert attention from tho main point at issue by raising a number of more or less irrelevant questions. We are not | surprised at its anxiety to cover up its plunder.

Considering the attacks to which the Government has been subjected in regard to electoral reform, it is really, remarkable, as the Hon. F. W. Lang pointed out the other day, that no.' attempt is being made to revive the dofunct claims of the Second Ballot, which the Government repealed. Opposition memhers and candidates have' been abusing the Government up hill and down dale for repealing the Second Ballot without putting something in its place, but, scf far as wo have observed, not a single ono of them has lifted his voice in favour of reinstating that happily dispatched electoral experiment. This may be classed as a negative fact, but it has _a_ very positive bearing upon the position as between the Government and its opponents, for it amounts to a-tacit endorsement of all that the Government has. dono so far in reforming the electoral law which it found in operation when it assumed office, while the critics of the Government are trumpeting forth all sorts of dreadful things about an attack on majority representation, they conveniently forget that their own party, during a long reign of power, could, think of no better "improvement" upon, the existing electoral system than the discredited Second Ballot, which has now gone unregretted to the scrapheap. Proportional representation and preferential voting were available, but the Wardists passed them by, and it must therefore be conceded that their present agitation is heavily tinctured with nypocrisy. As a matter of fact, it is very doubtful whether the desire professed by some interested politicians for the adoption of a fancy electoral system is in any way shared by the general public. Proportional_ representation, as we have often pointed out, v cannot be applied to the election of the Lower House on account of the country quota, and other/systems available seem to embody one at least of the bad features of the Second Ballot—the creation of an _ artificial and purely nominal majority by tho clubbing together of two or more minorities. The simple single vote which an elector at- present gives to the candidate of his choice has a value that is certainly not retained when tho vote is arbitrarily transferred to some other candidate, and until this difficulty is overcome it is difficult to see how the electoral system in vogue can be improved upon. 1 '

Many signs have been furnished of the nervous dread with which the members of the so-called "Progressive" alliance aro awaiting the verdict of the people in the local electorates. One of the. most amusing to date is a letter from "A Suburbs Elector," published in a -local newspaper, in which Mr. F. T. Moore is solemnly enjoined to heed "the writing on the wall," to wit, the result of the recent Makara elections in which Mn. Moore lost his seat upon the Makara County Council. He is urged to stand aside in favour of one or both of the Opposition candidates for the seat,.. Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Aislabie. The writer of the letter does not express a preference for one or. other of these, two. _ The incident furnishes a diverting illustration of the way in which the motley elements of the "Progressive" alliance are trying to play one another out, and so are willing to interpret the writing on' the wall accordingly.. Probably most people will interpret the writing on the wall in a broader spirit and recognise that it does not bear- any moro emphatically upon Mr. Moore's pretensions than it does upon those of tho other candidates wno aro competing with him for the favour of tho "Progressives." Certainly there is no reason to suppose that either Mr. Aislauie or Mr. Fitzgerald would have had . any better fortune than Mr. Moore if they had taken his" place in the contest in Makara County. As a matter of fact, the probability seems to be' that , Mr. Moore, who defeated Mr. Fitzgerald at tho last General Election, will go to the poll, and that if anybody withdraws at tho last minute it will be Mr. Fitzgerald who will be. Polled pa fcp,.mako th« sacrifice,.