The Fielding Star. Published Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1894. INDIFFERENT ELECTORS.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 310, 10 May 1894, Page 2

The Fielding Star. Published Daily. THURSDAY, MAY 10, 1894. INDIFFERENT ELECTORS.

It would appear that New Zealand is not the only colony in which electors do not place much value on the right of voting. We are told by the Review of Reviews that in New South Wales much difficulty is experienced in preparing the rolls for the new conetituencies. Under the Act electors' rights must be delivered personally to those entitled to them, and the police hav«been employed for this purpose. The toil of the process, however, is great, and the average citizen is somewhat

discomposed by the discovery that a policeman has been anxiously enquiring for him at the place where he last resided. To lessen the labor imposed upon the police, electors were invited to call at the police stations for their " rights," but this invitation was resented by some as an affront, and neglecced from pure laziness by multitudes of others. The typical elector, it is feared, values the franchise so lightly that he grudges the trouble of crossing the street to secure his elector's right. Many electors, it is prob--1 able, will be self-disfranchised at the next election from pure indifference. In New Zealand the legislature, with the view of compel Hug unwilling and i lazy electors to vote, made the fact of not going to the poll a cause for strik- & ing them off the electoral rolls. Ex- j peiience has proved, however, that j even the fear of disfranchisement did j not act as an incentive, and thousands j I abstained from exercising a privilege j which has caused English speaking j nations so much labor to attain. We k do not mean to imply that an elector is altogether wrong for not voting at a general election — or, in fact, at any j election — for one or more candidates ? if he disapproves of the whole of them, | 1 but in such a case he ought to be al- i I lowed to record "no vote " if he felt ' so disposed ; and if, as might happen, the " no votes " exceeded the affirnia- j tive votes for the candidates, the election should be declared null and void. J , Under the present system any candidates may be put up quite irrespective j of any fitness they may have for the ! ■ position, and some of them must be elected if only a tithe of the electors interested record their rotes. If such a system as we suggest were adopted it would prove a death blow to the professional politicians who now exist in so many of the colonies, and would, at the same time, go far to cure the electors of that feeling of indifference which they are not so much to blame for, when the character and abilities of their present representatives are " taken into consideration.