WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 October 1923, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

ELECTORAL REFORM. THE DOCTORS DIFFER. [Special To Tub Guardian.] WF.I.LIXGTOX, Oci df. The public has been treated to two widely different prescriptions for the reform of the electoral system during the last day or two, one from Mr 11. E. Holland, the leader of the .Parliamentary Labour Party, and the other from Dir W. .T. Poison, the Dominion President of the Farmers’ l nion. Both of these physicians, it would seem, are more concerned lor the piivilegos nf the particular people by whom they have been “called m than they are for tin 1 welfare of the whole community. Mr Holland rejects the Prime -Minister’s "shandygaff” proposal for the application of proportional representation to tho city com stilueneie.s and preferential voting io the rural constituencies with contempt and indignation. It would mean, lie told a meeting in the Town Hall on Wednesday night, that Mr Massey would get his fair share of representation in the cities and far more than his fair share in the rural districts, while Labour Would suffer both in Hie town and in the country constituencies. All i his is logical enough, as Mr Massey's own friend, must admit, tint the Prime Minister, of course, bus been mainly concerned tor tbe preservation of the “country quota.’’ the very antithesis of democratic icprescniation. THE FARMERS’ WEAL. Mr Poison simply wants what would suit the farmers Tiest and at the moo: ing of the Executive of the Farmers’ Fnioit yesterday he announced that iliis would be preferential voting. His colleagues fothwith confirmed bis judgment by resolving, "Thar- owing io ihc unsatisfactory result ol the parliamentary elections I rent the tanners’ point of view the Government he urged to adopt a more democratic electoral system than now obtains and suggests the adoption of preloienlial voting.” Most people understand that the only material advantage of preferential voting is that it prevents vote splitting, but had it been i; operation at the last general election it is by no lacans clear that it would have done anything to help Hu* tanners or the party In the House of !’ presenta fives to which they are popularly supposed to lie attached. There were altogether twenty-three minority representatives returned last: Dei ember and of these ten were Reformerseven Liberals and six l.abonrii” Only in three eases, at rno-i. were tie Reformers found "culling one another’s throats.” while the Liberals and the Labourites were performing, these senseless operations all over the country, and between them lost seven seats they might otherwise have won , Had they been content to progress together tliev would have returned Io j the new Parliament with a iceinrity of at least ten. RAILWAY CHARGES. Another ini crest ing controversy going on iust now is between the Farm-] els’ Union and the General Mnnagei j of Railways in regard to railway i charges. A deputation from the Executive of the I'liioii wailed upon Mrj .MeYiiiey yesterday with demands for] wholesale reductions in charges and] seemed to lutie’ made out a very good i case till Ihe .Mauiise 1 ' applied liini-wli j io Hie eongeniul task of demolition. I He opened with a bivathles- sentence | which for the moment seemed to bring the farmers’ whole structure tumbling] about their ears. "Fir.-t of all.' lie j told the deputation. "I want to *ay i that the Railway Department is out j to give the lies! service il can give to j everv section ol the community iu I his, 1 country, that is what tin- Railway Do- ] pertinent is llict'c for. I lie railway* | belong to the pie. Every Individ-] mil ill the country has an equal slake, ill the railways. The adluiiuislrative | officers of the Department have got toj do their duty fearlessly to every section of tin’ community., and they linvei to sec as a mailer ol duty, and as a] mailer of trust, that the people ol the country who use the railways pay a fair, right and proper charge for lie services that are rendered to them: because every person who gels service rendered to him ai less than cost imerely escaping his liability lo pay for that service so rendered, and individuals who lmvo not received an'.' lieneiit from the service have to tool the hill at the end of the year. There appeared to lie nothing to say in reply to this pious proposition. IMPRESSED RET UNCONVINCED. However, the farmers though impressed still were unconvinced. They had no wish, one of the members of the deputation declared during a subsequent interview, to shift their burdens oil to other peoples’ shoulders or to escape their fair share ol the work ol reconstruction. Rut in the inter csis of the whole country Huy urged that settlement, and production -Jioiiltl he encouraged by every means possible. The idea that the way to make the railways pay was to maintain high charges and drive traffic oil Io the roads seemed to many of them preposterous. 'I hero was a point at which they really could not afford to make use of the linos, and the on! alternative to the cessation of production was to devise some cheaper means of transit. It the Government would not help them they would have to help themselves.