ELECTORAL REFORM.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 July 1925, Page 4

ELECTORAL REFORM.

(To tin.' Editor.) Sir It is disappointing to find a gentleman of Air W. A. Chappie's culture anil wide observation writing n! the ‘‘alternative vote” (the system embodied in iin* late Air Robert AlrNah's Absolute Majority Bill) as if it wre the lasi word on electoral reform, and quoting wiili apparent approval tilt assert ion of the Sydney ‘'Bulletin” that prop- I >rl iona I representation is ‘‘a fool of a system." “I’ndor this great and now urgent reform.” Alt' (Tinppk says of the alternative vote, ‘‘each ol three parlies would he free to send its candidate to the poll. The eleetoi woitd he instructed on the ballot paper, containing the three names of the lieform, the Liberal and the Labour candidates in number each in the older o| his choice, by placing the numbers I, •_ and 3 opposite their names, and tin Returning Officer would he iiistructet tu give to each candidate all the preferences east in his favour by the voters and to calculate which of the till'd com nut uih'ii a majority.”

Thai this system, or something like it. lies been adopted in all the Australian States with The exception of New Soiilli Wales and Tasmania, where proportional representation is established, its high testimony to its popularity, and I am quite prepared to admit that in the great majority of eases it registers public opinion much more accurately than does the “first-past-llm-post” system which still disfigures the electoral law of this country. To understand how Hie present haphazard system of misrepresentation may operate it is imeessavv only to analyse the polling at the general election of 1919. when hie Labour Party first entered the political arena as an independent entity. The following figures show (1) the number of Mites east for each party' on that occasion ; (2) its percentage to the total number of votes polled; (3) the number of seats wan h.v each party, and (-1) its percentage to the total scats:---Eefurnieis 200,-101 votes, 38.2 per cent.; II seats, 57.9 per cent. Liberals 19(1.337 votes, 30.3 per cent; 22 seats, 23.9 per cent. I.ahour 127.0-12 votes. 23.2 per eenl.; M seats. 10.0 per cent. independent 12.3-1.") votes. 2.3 per (eni.; 2 seats. 2.6 per ceni. Totals ->-13,18-5 votes. KM per eenl.; 70 seats. KM per cent.

ft. will he seen from these figures that the Reformers, who polled only 38.2 per cent, of the total voles, secured .',7.!) per cent ol the seats, while the Liberals with 3b.3 per cent, of the voles secured only 23.9 per cent, id the seals, and Labour, faring still, worse, with 23.2 per cent, of the votes secured only 10. b per ccnl. ol the seats. In other words, the Reformers, though in a minority ol 120.20” in the constituencies. went back to the House with a majority id twelve, raised h> fourteen bv their majority of two m the Maori represent a lion. All Ibis, of course, was a triumph ol organisation and discipline over eh,-ms and disruption. and the defeated parties have leasnu io be thankful that the bighearted leader of the successful minority never forgot what was due to the routed majority. The election of 1922 found the Liberal and Labour Baltics better organised than they had been three years before, though still further apart than they had been at the time of their overwhelming debacle. 'I he Rolortn vote increased from 38.2 per cent, ol the total to 12.2 per cent. ; tile Liberal vote declined from 3(5.3 per cent, to 29.9 per cent.; the Labour vote increased from 23.2 per cent, to 23.8 per tout, and the Independent from 2.3 poteen t to 4.1 per cent. The valid votes polled by the parties (counting .Mr fsitt

and Mr Witty as Liberals, and .Mr Stntham and Colonel Bell as Independents) were as follows:—Reform, 260,-97-1; Liberal,, 184,696; Labour 146.774; Independent, 2d.683, a total of 010,127. Among tlie successful candidates were 24 wlm secured fewer than a majority of the votes polled in the constituencies they contested, and consequently are popularly known as minority representatives. These are the candidate:! whose posit ions would have been affected by Mr Chappie’s “alternative vote” system had it been in operation at the time, and it may be of interest to see. as far as may be without actually examinin'' the ballot papers to what extent the results would havei been altered. In these twenty-four constituencies 211.038 votes were polled. 78,906 for Reformers, 68.196 for Liberals, d 0.891 for Labour and 8.646 for fndependenis, and if these votes had till been proportionately effective they would have returned nine Reformers, eight Liberals, .six Labourites and one Independent. As a matter of fact they returned nine Liberals, eight Rclormers and seven Labourites, showing that the present system, bad as it is at time?, on occasion works out less inequßanly. But had the alternative system been noperation the Labourites and the Independents between them could have turned the scale against seven of the Libra! candidates by giving their alternative vote to Reform, as they probably would have done in their perfectly legitimate desire to clear i ncir or. way to the Treasury Benches, and so reduce the representation of the oldest party in the House to fourteen members. It is the facilities it offers for irregular warfare ol this kind that has brought the alternative system into some disrepute.

Mr Chappie is not very lucid in his explanation of the duties of the returning officer who is to “calculate” which of the candidates “commanded a majority,” and 1 fear he may have conveyed to some of the readers the impression that the calculation would be a very intricate line and its result not wholly reliable. As a matter of fact it would he simplicity itsef, well within the rapacity of a fifth standard schoolboy. 1 am taking if for granted that .Mr Chappie would provide lor each candidate being pitied against each other candidate, so that they all would have an equal chance in the connl. and if he can not go the whole length of proportional representation. which would »;e immeasurably heller than any other system, tln- democracy should welcome bis assistance ill obtaining this modicum of rolorm. I am el.' s.s. P.S.- At t lie election of 1922 there was no coolest in the B't.v of Islands con :i it none'.', Mr K. S. Williams being returned unopposed, and for the purpose of the above figures it has been assumed that, hud there been a route. 3. tbc voting w Old,l have been as it ne at the bvc-e!o<tion in 1920. when 2.34 1 voles were east for the Reform candidate and 1,763 for the Liberal candidate.