The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6th, 1922. “DOWN AND OUT.”

Hokitika Guardian, 6 November 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian MONDAY, NOVEMBER 6th, 1922. “DOWN AND OUT.”

j Down and out! This is the gibe which j it pleases the Reform politicians and i the Reform newspapers, to level at I the LaberpULabonr Party on every possible occasion. It obtains some sort of transitory colour from the fact that owing to a flagrantly undemocratic system of election—maintained on the Statute Bdok by the broken prom ire • of the frilno Minister -the expiring

House of Representatives contains many, fewer Liberal and Labour liieinbers than would have been returned had not a very large -section of the electors been jockeyed out of their rights by the party in office. At the election of three years ago, 20(5,-101 votes were east for Reform candidates, 196.8.17 for Liberal candidates and 139.369 for Labour and Independent candidates. The two Independent candidates who were returned, Mr George Mitchell, the member for Wellington South, and Mr C. E. Stathnin, the member for Dunedin Central. have consistently voted witli the progressive party so that it is perfectly fair to assume that the votes east for lndjpendent candidates were not intended to strengthen the position of the Reform Grtrcrnipent. Independents of the ■brand of Mw Sykes, of course. have not been taken into account and the votes given to the member for Masterton at the last election have been ineluded in the Reform total, Then let us see what really was the result of the rigging of the electoral machine by the party whose leader had promised the country ‘‘something better than the second ballot,’* and loudly extolled the virtues of proportional representation. The Reformers with 506,461 votes secured forty-four scats, against the Liberals with 196,867 votes, the Labourites with 127.024 votes and the Independents with 12.346 votes the remainder. This means that while 206,161 votes were cast for the Reform Government, 336,206 votes were east against it. or. in other words, that with only 38 per cent of the voting strength of the Dominion, it obtained 68 per cent of tiie representation in Parliament. Mr Massey knew what as be was about when be repudiated bis promise to provide something better that the second ballot and renounced bis faith in proportional representation. Tf anything more is required to show that the Liberal-Labour Party is not “down and out” it is provided by a eemparison between tile votes polled bv tlie parties in 1911 and those polled in 1919. Hero are the figures:

tion Ref. Lib. Lab. Total 1914-243,476 219.619 62.812 616,907 1919-206.461 196,837 139.369 642.607

These figures surely make the | osition clear. During the five years, notwithstanding an increase of over 23.000 ill the number of votes polled, the Reform vote* declined by over 37,000 while the l.iberal-ljibmir vote, including the Independent section, increased bv over 03.000. Probably the comment of Reform on those figures will lie that in several constituencies their party put up no candidates and the Reform voters went to candidates of another colour. But this story outs both ways. The Liberal and Labour parties were in precisely the same position. and made what use they could of such opportunities as were offered them. The fact remains plain however that in the country it is not the l.ib-eral-Tjiibqur Party that is down mid out and decadent, but the party that, lias bold office by manipulating the ehx toriil system.