WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 October 1922, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

ELECTORAL REFORM

PRIME MINISTER’S ATTITUDE. - SPECIAL TO GUARDIAN. WELLINGTON, Oct. 1G It seems that Air Massey’s attitude, past and present, towards electoral reform, and particularly towards proportional representation, will form one of the chief counts in the indictment the Opposition will level against the Government during the approaching election campaign. There are a number of indications that this will be the case. The abortive negotiations be. tween the leader of the Liberal-Labour Party and the militant section of the Labour Party, to take one of them, were instituted by the ardent . advocates of proportional representation with a view to making their panacea for all the ills of the body politic practically the only issue, so far as the Opposition was concerned, at the polls in December. The idea was that by abstaining from vote-splitting the two parties should secure a majority in the new House favourable to the reform, and. after passing the necessary legislation to give effect to their aspirations in this respect, should again appeal to the constituencies. That scheme failed because a majority of the members of the Liberal-Labour Partv wore averse even to the appearance of any sort of association with militant Labour, and the only result of the movement was to provide the Reformers with a rather feeble election er.v. THE DEAD PAST.

But neither the Liberals nor the Labourites are allowing this failure to discourage them in attempting to make party capital out of electoral reform. Towards this end they have material and to spare in the Prime Minister’s owr. utterances in regard to the subject. Tn the memorable speech Mr Massev delivered in the Wellington Town Hal on the eve of the general election of 1011, which marked {lie beginning of the revival which ultimately carried the Reformers into office, the leader of the party definitely pledged himself fo electoral reform on the lines of proportional representation. "If reform was necessary in the. House of Lords,” the widely distributed official summary of his words ran, “it was twenty times more necessary in the case of our Legislative Council. The system of appointment for a term of seven years was unsatisfactory. lie could not understand any country allowing such a body to,make laws. On behalf of his party lie suggested reform by replacing the present nominative Council with one elected on the same franchise as the House of Representatives, on the proportional system of voting by larger electorates.” This, of course, did not commit Mr Massey and his friends to the application of proportional representation to the House; but. there was more to follow. “A SOUND PRINCIPLE.”

Early in the session of 1014. when Mr Massey had been in office for nearly three years, Mr Veit eh introduced the Hill to make the House elective under the system which would give proportional representation, and the Prime Minister speaking in the second rending debate said, in effect, he had no doubt the principle of proportional representation was sound and eventually would be applied to all popular assemblies in progressive countries; but lie thought it would be better to try the system in the Legislative Council before introducing it to the House. Tiip Bill was rejected by four or five votes, one or two of the Government’s supporters voting with the minority, and a little later the Bill applying proportional representation to the Legislative Council, piloted through the nominated Chamber by Sir Francis Bell, made its appearance in tins House and in due course reached the Statute Book. Up to this point Mr Massey laid done nothing to stultify himself in connection with his promises. He had fulfilled his election pledge.

Ti KCANT IXO. lint in applying proportional rcprascntation to the Legislative. Council the Prime -Minister Inul taken care that the reform should not have full effect for six years and that in the interval his own nominees to the Chamber should hold the balance of voting strength. This meant, in practice, that the Council, with the power of nomination gone, would he dominated by Reformers during the lives of two Parliaments, no matter what might happen at the two intervening genera! elections. This obviously was a party ruse, though perhaps not a very heinous one, and the fact explains why the members of the LiberalI -ahour Party offered strenuous opposition to the passage of the measure and stipulated for its suspension on the formation of the National Cabinet. Tlmir objection was not to proportional representation but to the methods of its application. Of more immediate eonser(itence just now, however, is the fact that .Mr Massey has recanted and is no longer favourable to the application of the system to either Chamber. The peculiarity about this reform is that it never is in favour with the party in power. The occupants of the Treasury Benches always prefer the system that has put them there.