WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent).

RESTLESS LABOUR. PREPARING FOR NEXT ELECTION WELLINGTON, Jan. 14.

The national executive of the New Zealand Labour Party is a restless body that does not allow the political grass to grow under its party feet. Its members are to meet here to-morrow to congratulate themselves upon the measure of success they achieved at the recent general election, and to prepare for the next appeal to the constituents. The Hon. J. T. Paul probably will preside and all the “pledged” Labour members of Parliament are expected to be present. These consist of Messrs D. G. Sullivan (Avon), J. McCombs, (Lyttelton), P. Fraser (Wellington Central), H. E. Holland (Buller), M. J. Savage (Auckland West), W. E. Parry (Auckland Central), and E. J. Howard,

(Christchurch South), seven in all who doubtless, will add very considerably to the debating power of the House, and, it may be hoped, something, to itß wisdom.

THE PARTY LEADER. Among the other business of to-mor-row’s meeting will be the election of a leader. The less impetuous section of the party had hoped for the' success of the Hon J .T .Paul at the polls and hisaccession to the position Mr H. E. Holland filled in the last Parliament. But a small majority of the electors of Dunedin South decreed otherwise and it seems likely now Mr Holland will retain the leadership, for which he obviously is not so well fitted temperamentally as are some of his younger colleagues. It is understood the proposal for the establishment of a daily newspaper also will be discussed at the meeting. This ha*s been on the tapis for some time and the attitude of the other parties’ organs towards official Labour during the election campaign has brought it to a head.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. Of course the executive of the party will express itself as highly gratified hy the result of the election. And not without some reason. But a close examination of the polling must have opened the eyes of the party by this time 'to the fact that the large increase in the apparent number of its supporters was due in a great measure to the electors of the older parties casting their votes for Labour when a candidate of their own colour was not standing. In Avon, for example, there was a very striking instance of what happened all over the country. At the election of 1914 the Liberal candidate in this constituency received 3612 votes, the Labour candidate 2569 and the Reform candidate 2261, the total votes polled being 8442. At the recent election there was no serious Reform candidate and the Liberal candidate, who had succeeded at the previous election, received 3420 votes and the Labour candidate, who had been defeated, 5004 a total of 8424. The only comment necessary is that the Labour Party would be deceiving itself if it took the figures at their face value. THE NEW MEMBERS.

Though the new members of the Labour Parliamentary Party are less impetuous and perhaps a little militant than Mr H. E. Holland and Mr Robert Semple would have liked them to be, they are very earnest in their attachment to the policy to which they are pledged. Mr D. Or. Sullivan will be found one of the most capable representatives of Labour that yet has won a seat, in the House. He is well read, well informed and well experienced, lias tact as well as courage, and always plays the game. Mr E. J. Howard is of a somewhat more volatile te “P e . l ®' ment than his colleague from Chris church, but he knows what he wants and seeks it persistently, blessed always by the saving grace of humour. Mr M. J. Savage and Mr W. E. Parry are weighter men in years and in speech, but they are brimful of the energy that wins out and they will make themselves heard and felt in the House.

THE GENERAL ELECTION

freaks of the ballot

WELLINGTON, January 15. The result of the returning officer s official count hi connection with the recent general election justifies to a large extent the hard things that have been said about the “first past the post” system by, disappointed candidates and voters during the last week or ,two. The returning officer does not, of course, indicate the party colour of the candidates, but taking the candidates’ own declarations of their policy we find that 206, 461 votes elected forty-four Reformers, 196, 837 i Owen by-two Liiberal and Liberal-La-bourites, 127,026 eight Official Labourites and 12,345 two Independents. Mr S. G. Smith, tho member for Taranaki, Air W. A. Veitch, the member for Wanganui,, and Mr E. Kellett, the member for Dunedin North, are accepted in these figure as Liberal-Labourites, while Mr W. D. Lynsar, the member for Gisborne, and Colonel Mitchell, the member for Wellington South, are regarded as Independents. Several other successful candidates declared themselves as Independents during the olee--tion campaign, imlludiug Mr James Craigie, the member for Timaru, and Mr C. 35. Statham, the member for Dunedin South ibut their former attachments may be expected to induce them to take sides in the event of a Crucial division. DISPROI’ORTIONALt REPRESEN-

TATION. Assuming the party leaning of the members of tho new House to be as stated above, it took an average of 4692 votes to elect a Reform member, 8927 to elect a Liberal-Labour member, 15,910 to elect an Official Labour member and 6173 to elect an Independent member. Had representation followed in proportion to the number of votes polled tlio new House would have consisted of 29 Reformers (28.96 to ho precise), 27 'Liberal-Labourites (27.55), 18 Official Labourites (17.78), and 2 Independents (1.71). But in weighing tho significance of these figures in them bearing upon tho strength of parties in tho country it must be remembered that oppoeing’forces in a number of cases supported the same candidate. In the Aron and Christchurch goutli con-

tests for instance, a comparison of the voting in 1914 and 1919 will make it quite plain that the Reformers in these constituencies, having no candidate of their own in the field, solidly supported the Official Labour candidates. No doubt Liberals in a similar position did. the same thing, hut it is not so easy to drop upon flagrant examples of their adherence to the practices of the party game. It is safe to say, however, that between them the two older parties gave 20,000 or 25,000 votes to Labour candidates and to that extent lessened their own totals in the figures under notice. AN INDECISIVE RESULT.

All this makes it abundantly clear that the election of a Parliament under the existing .system of voting is an extremely haphazard business. The position appears to he that 206,461 electors have got the Government they desire and 336,208 electors have not. While in a minority of 129,747 in the constituencies, Mr Massey has secured a majority of four, perhaps five of even six, in the House, without taking the Maori members into account. The country has had minority rule before, but never in quite such a pronounced measure as it has it now, and many of the Prime Minister’s own friends are deploring the clumsy operation of the ballot. They are obtaining what comfort they may from the reflection that a still worse muddle would have been brought about had. a few score votes in Canterbury been cast the other way. The capture of the Kainpoi, Temuka and Waitaki seats saved Mr Massey from returning to the House with a [ majority of no more than one and facing an Opposition that probably would have given him no quarter. Electoral reformers are praying that his narrow escape may remind him of certain promises concerning “a better system than the second ballot” he made to them on the threshold of his ministerial career.