TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3260, 13 December 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1881.

In a former issue we attributed the defeat at these last elections of bo many of our best-known colonial statesmen to the extension of the franchise—in a word, to manhood suffrage—but the perusal of an article ia the September number of the Nineteenth Century has materially altered our views upon this subject. We still, however, hold to the opinion that manhood suffrage was unnecessary, and that it ha' not heen followed by good results. The article to which we have referred commences with these words :—" The tendency of a democratic cal community," saysPre'vost-Paradol, in his book Lα France Nouvelle, " is to grant, sooner or later, the right of suffrage to every citizen of which it is composed; but this inevitable extension of the right of suffrage may be brought about wisely and slowly, and follow the progress of lights, or, on the contrary, it may be sudden and urged forward in its course by the ebock of revolutions." The second case has been that of France. The article, we should have mentioned, is written by a Frenchman, and is upon the electoral law of France. " Suppose an ideal republic, such as Plato's, after a long series of instruction and compulsory military service had made of every citizen a man conscious or his right, and, what ia far more difficult, conscious of his duties, it is quite certain that universal sufFrage would have been the crowning of the democratic edifice. But it is wellknown that since the most remote period pure reason has never been the law that governs nations. We have begun by what ought logically to have been the end—by universal suffrage." Universal suffrage is indestructible, once obtained by a people, no matter by what means,

it will never be relinquished. The object of the article is to sbow in what way the evils resulting from manhood suffrage can be mitigated. There exist in France two principal ways of 'consulting public opinion by means of universal suffra?e, namely, scrvtin de liste and sendin d' arrondissement. ScfuUii de lute may be best explained in this way : New Zealand being divided into provinces, each province, on a population basi9, returns a given number of members of Parliament, and whatever that number may be tbe electors have to vote for that number of candidates. Scrutin d'arrondissement signifies the division of the provinces into small electoral districts returning one member each, the electors having the right to vote (ot only One candidate. This last is the system that was introduced into this colony by the Representation Act of last session, and a most mi-chievou3 system it because, instead of the best-Known and tbe most capable men in the Country being returned to Parliament, as would be the case in large electorates returning three or more representatives, we have merely locally known men, of no colonial reputation whatever, elected to do the work ;of delegates rather than that of representatives. That has been the case in France, and that has been our own experience of the operation of the system. "If tbe candidates under this system, , ' says our French author, " are too often men of little merit, the reasons which decide the vot°rs are too often more mediocre still. The candidates, indeed, make professions of their political faith. But most of these professions are mere cockades, and are no security for anything real. Local interests decide the public voice in a small constituency. The construction of a branch railway line, opening a new high road," apd such like small matters determine the election, to the exclusion of the great questions affecting the real progress and welfare of the country. " This has been constantly observed, and it can be so accounted for: the side of local interests and personal ambitions in the midst of any group (of electorates) whatsoever diminishes in proportion as the numerical importance of the group increases. If you address yourself to the electors of a whole department (or province) local passions will disappear, by the simple fact of the extent comprised, and candidates will appeal to tbe political opinions of the electors, and to those only. In the small electorate the deputy places himself at the perviceofa few interests, of a few individuals. But this is not all. If it is true that too great a number of suffrages are carried by the prospect of individual or local favors, it follows too often that tbe member thus elected becomes a simple paid commissioner, a procurator supported by .a small number of electors, the reverse of disinterested. To be returned he must above all make promises; and if he stops short at this moral bribery, and does not try a method still more detestable than that employed in tbe rotten boroughs of England before the reform of 1832, bribery by money and wine, we may consider ourselves lucky. * * By promises or other means, one may succeed in corrupting three or four thousand electors ; but when the number of electors rise 9to fifty or one hundred thousand, bribery becomes impossible. To be elected by a umall electorate, it may suffice to be the one from whom the greatest amount of support, in private and local interest, is to be expected. But to be elected by a large district something more Is required, and then the elections take a purely political character." There can be no doubt about this, that to thesmillness of the electoral districts is due the rejection of so many of our ablest men, as it gave the opportunity to clever candidates of becoming personally acquainted with every individual elector, and of influencing votes by little acts of kindness and by unbounded promises. Tf Waipawa, Hawke's Bay, and the East Coast districts—and they have all precisely the same interests as regards the colony at large—bad been thrown into one electorate returning three members—the borough being cutoff —is ie in the least likely that Mr" McDonald and Mr Smith would have been returned to tbe rejection of men like Mr Crmond and Mr Locke ? We think not. Local interests largely determined the elections on the one hand, and personal likes and dislikes on the other. Under a proper system of local government local interests would be delegated to the local bodies, anrt under a better system of representa'ion they could no more have entered into the elections than could personal feelings towards the candidates have influenced the return of the representatives.