The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2117, 17 February 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1870.

It is necessary from time to time to review the ground gone over by our Colonial Legislature, in order that we may be reminded of what has been left undone. At the close of a session there is always what is termed a slaughter of the innocents. Many Bills that were introduced are either withdrawn or allowed to lapse, and although few of them are of immediate importance, and many of them of no public interest whatever, occasionally an important measure shares the common fate. Amongst the latter class last session was the Election by Ballot Bill. It passed the House of "Representatives, but was shorn of its usefulness when it reached the Legislative Council, and the battle has again to be fought and won. It is difficult to imagine how men can persuade themselves that the objections they urge against the system of voting by ballot has even a shadow of reason in it. What is wanted in representative institutions is, to have a full and free expression of the electoral mind at the hustings and to this end every impediment tending to divert or interrupt that expression should be removed. It has been said that in the Colonies men are so independent of each other, that there is no danger of undue influence being used to coerce or control votes. It will be in in the recollection of most of our readers that on the hustings Mr Dillon Bell objected to the ballot on the ground that he himself gave his vote independently and others should do the same. This, though very straightforward, was really nothing to the purpose. Mr Bell is in a position that renders him much more able to influence others than to be influenced by them. To men situated as he is, the ballot can make very little difference, so far as they are personally concerned. But when they have to legislate for others, the question ceases to bo personal. They have to look beyond their mere individual circumstances and ask how others are situated. Even in Great Britain, that hot-bed of prejudices, opinion on the ballot is changing- Ever since England had a parliament, scheme after scheme has been tried to attain to purity of election, but in vain. Each succeeding parliament discloses deep-rooted corruption in election practices. No matter how widely the franchise is extended, some system is discovered whereby the constituencies can be bribed or coerced. For the last forty years, it has been pointed out that prevention is easy, and that the ballot is an effectual remedy. But no—it was perhaps too simple. It is very odd, but it is true, that in legislation the most roundabout ways are usually tried first. Penal laws were enacted, and convictions took place under them; electioneei’ing agents were punished, electors imprisoned, members unseated, boroughs disfranchised—but in vain ; impersonation, bribery, treating, intimidation, still continued; and now the conviction so' long resisted has forced itself upon the Imperial Parliament, that the ballot must of necessity be an effectual cure. But the most singular effect of that one-sided reasoning is, that its opponents affect horror at some imaginary moral evils to be induced by it, oc if they did not exist in their intense. fi .a, linked with others of an immeasur..bly blacker dye under the present system. All that can possibly be urged against the ballot is doubtful as regards them, but is absolutely true of open voting. And although from the social condition of the Colony the evils are not likely to be so widely operative as in aristocratic Great Britain, we are not free from their their influence. Mr Bonar, in moving the second reading of the Bill in the Legislative Council said :

We know that a great many people, from a variety of causes, are induced to record their votes differently from what they otherwise would do. Some are influenced by personal friendship, some from the nature of their business, others from their connection with trade unions and trade societies, and even, in some cases, I have known religion to be brought to bear in cases of election. , . . I have heard of cases in which persons have lost their situations through not recording their votes as their employers would wish. Now I believe very few men in the Colony would say to their laborers, “ if you do not vote as I want you, I will discharge you,” but it would be done in this way : when the first chance came of finding fault, the person would be deprived of his situation for having acted as his conscience directed him. It is of no use blinking the fact that people are amenable to these outside influences. Dr Buchanan said Lis views had changed on the subject:— As far as he could see, it was not so much intended to protect the employe against the employer, as to protect certain classes who had become members of associations aeainst one another. In his Province (Otago) there were many men belonging to associations, such as Caledonians, Oddfellows, and Friendly Societies, and others of the kind, on whom, ho understood, considerable pressure was brought to bear by the directors and other leading individuals at the time of elections. Whether that he true or not we cannot say, but that it is possible, or even

probable, cannot be disputed. At the coming session the measure will bo brought forward again, and as the House of Representatives dissolves through effluxion of time, and an election must follow after next session, it is important that the ballot should become law, in order that every elector, however poor or dependent, may have opportunity of voting in such a manner as in his conscience ho believes for the benefit of the Colony. Our representative, Mr Reynolds, lias been a consistent advocate of the ballot during the whole of his parliamentary career, and it will be for the honor of Dunedin and Otago to support him, if needful, by a strong expression of opinion in its favor.