N.S.W. LABOR GOVERNMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1920, Page 3

N.S.W. LABOR GOVERNMENT

CANNOT FILL VACANCIES IN PARLIAMENT. j SYDNEY, September 29. i The Labour Government of New South Wales is perched fair and square on the sharp horns of a dilemma and, look where it will, it can find no way out of its trouble. There are three scats vacant /in Pairliamenjt. Ordinary justice to the electors, apart from custom, demands that they be filled at once. But tho electoral law is 'n a, tangle, and the Government does not know how to fill them. I When the parties came back from the polls, the strength of the Nationalists and the Progressives, op Country Party, combined, exactly equalled that of the Labour Party. Labour formed a Government and secured a majority of one by persuading the old Nationalist Speaker to retain his office. Then the Labour Government offered a judgeship to Mr Beeby (Prosuit, a Labour majority of two. A. member of the Progressive party died suddenly. Result, a Labour majority of three. The Labour Government another judgeship to Mr James, a leading member of the Nationalist Party. Amid wild shrieks from his colleagues, Mr James accepted. Result/ a Labour majority of four, and three vacant seats to he filled. It seems easy to fill a vacancy by means of a. by-election—but it is not easy under the Proportional Representation system as it exists in New S'outh Wales. The late Nationalists Government duly brought the P.R. law ln f o operation, but completely omitted to