WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 February 1920, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(Our Special Correspondent). ELECTORAL REFORM. SIR JOSEPH WARD’S VIEWS. WELLINGTON, Feb. 18. Amidst the methodical hustle of. packing papers and correspondence provious to his departure this evening for the South, where he is to be banquetted by Ins late constituents, Sir Joseph Ward found time—a little broken, it must be admitted—to say a few words to the representative of the “Guardian” concerning the need for electoral reform. “I am not finding fault with the present system of election because it has put me out of public life, at .any rate for a time,” Sir Joseph said as he resigned himself to speaking a piece. “Years ago 1 realised there must be something wrong with a system which allowed a candiadate with only a minority of the' votes polled, it might be one-third or even a smaller proportion, to be returned to Parliament. But it was not till I became head of the Government that I had an opportunity to attempt a remedy, and in 1908 I introduced the second ballot which canie into operation for thd first time at the election of that year. I am free to confess now that it was not altogether satisfactory. It gave us a nearer approach to majority representation than we ever had had before, but it strung out the election for a further fortnight, causing a good deal of unrest and uncertainty, and it added materially to the cost of ascertaining the will of the constituencies. BACK TO THE OLD SYSTEM. “When Mr Massey and his friends came into office in 1912,” Sir Joseph went on to say, “they set about the repeal of the second ballot and so took us back to the old ‘first past the post’ system. During the debate in the House on the subject Mr Massey gave most of us to understand that the second ballot was lreing repealed with a view to the' introduction of a better system. Many of us assumed he had in his mind the system of a preferential voting, which would have given practically the same results as the second ballot had without the delays, and to this I should have offered no objection, though there are, of course, systems and systems of preferential voting. However, Mr Massey and his colleagues having thought the matter over decided to stick to the old system and we all know it has served them very well. At the election of 1914 while in a minority of some 30,000 in the constituencies they obtained a majority of two in the House, and at the recent election while in a minority of some 120,000, as against Liberal and Labour, in the constituencies they obtaine a majority of twelve European members in the House. It is not for me to find fault with Mr Massey’s preference for the ‘first past the post’ system which gives such results, as I presume my old leaders Mr Ballance and Mr Seddon had a similar preference.” PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

“But,” Sir Joseph added with deliberation, “I don’t think the electors with the grotesque travesty of democratic representation they now have before them are going to tolerate much longer the system by which it was produced. My own preference is for proportional representation which by the operation of the single transferable vote would give a very considerable section of the community the exact proportion of representation to which it was entitled by its numbers. Under this system minorities as well as majorities would be represented in Parliament, not in the haphazard fashion in which they are represented now, but ‘in proportion to the number of votes they could muster. I am not sure, however, that the country is yet ready for this full measure of reform. We could not discuss it during the war, because it was a controversial party question and those of us in the Cabinet were tongue-tied. This being the case public education on the question has proceeded very slowly and as a stepping stone towards proportional representation I should be prepared to' accept in 'the meantime preferential voting, which would give us at least majority representation and go far to heal the breach between the progressive forces, Liberal and Labour, which has just put our reactionary friends the Reformers, into office and power. Proportional representation must come with education and understanding, but while we are waiting for these preferential voting would be a vast improvement on the present inequitable system.