The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in oorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1925. THE SECRET BALLOT.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 December 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is in oorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1925. THE SECRET BALLOT.

Foi.k of kite have Leconte greatly interested in elections and the applications of the secret hallot. A sj-eeitd article on the subject appealed in a Sydney paper, on the eve of the recent election, and the subject matter will no doubt prove interesting and insetructivc to cur readers, and with that in view we publish the article in (|iiestion. which goes on to say that though the ballot or secret voting is a very old inslit in ion. practised both in Rome and Greece, principally for voting at criminal trials, the application of the system at popular elections of members of Parliament is of comparatively re out usage. Voting by ballot was not openly advocated by retorniers in Great Britain until the beginning of the lilth century; ir, ISM') O'Connel introduced the first hill on the subject, and in 18-'?8 it was the fourth point of the “People's Charter.” The first petition for the Australian vote by ballot papers appears to have emanated from 8t!0 odd Forrest Creek miners in the early 'fifties. The Act authorising its operation ill New South Wales, however, was not passed until a much later period. The honour cf introducing the system in Australia is keenly disputed by Victoria mid South Australia. Under the Separation Act of 18-50. both South Australia and Victoria (Port Phillip) vve"given Legislative Councils, and at both centres a demand was made to conduit the ensuing election by a in'" of secret voting. Open voting, however. due to certain hostile action taken by the New South Wales legislative Council, continued for nnnth" four years. In 1855, the deeisint \vr loft to the local Legislatures. On November Ist. I&>s. Sir R. 0. Macdonnell, then Governor of South Australia, officially advocated the ballot in a, .speech delivered on the occasion

of the opening session of the South Australian Council. On November 20th. Francis Dutton ami 0. S. Kingston (C. C. Kingston’s father) gave notice of motions favouring the ballot. 13. T. Finn is, then Premier of South Australia, ultimately yielded, ami on April 2nd. 1850. the machinery for the hill, containing provisions for voting bv ballot, became law. In Victoria, after a great struggle resulting in Haines, leader of the Government, resigning, a .similar measure was placed on the Statute Book mi March 19th. 1850. thus affording Victoria slight priority over South Australia in this important reform. Ihe first .system employed provided for the striking out of the name or names of candidates the elector was not desirous of choosing as his Parliamentary re--1 resentativo; the extension of the franchise to women was not thought ot in those days. Ibis system, by file way, prevailed in New South Wan until about twenty years ago. In South Australia, however, a new method of voting, invented by \\ . If. Booth by, who figured as returning ofli.er for that Stale, and whose nephew. Any JJoothby, subsequently nchic.eii degree of fame as a novelist, was introduced in !BoS, requiring the elector to place a cross within the printed square opposite the name ot the .undulate he favoured. Until the ad* • cut of preferential voting in It'll 1 this method was employed at Ommioii.vealth general elections. i s-lu.cilia and New South Wales adopted the Inillm in 1858; Queensland inherited the system when that State separated irom New South Wales in 1859; while it was instituted in Western Australia and New Zealand in 1879. In 1872 the Australian ballot was adopted in (treat Britain. British Columbia 187:5, Canada 1871. Belgium IS7«, and .Massachusetts (C.S.A) in 1888, the other

Ainerienn .Statc.s not tii*i£ it nntil fifteen years later. In each and all of these oversea countries the system of balloting employed is primarily based on the one in vogue in Australia. The British and Canadian methods are essentially those 'employed in South Australia; the Belgian ballot paper provides lor party “tickets but the ballot papers issued in the Foiled

Stul l's nri' most i omjdmated sheets. on whit'll tlm voter Inis to mark his cliuiro lor sometimes linmlreils of eandidalei'of dozens of (dikes, its Hell ns 1 1 is attitude towards twenty or thirty jiiere.s of legislation, the eioss eoi.st itu ti no the usual mark. Incidentally. Henry S. Chapman is credited uith In ini' tin actual inventor of the hallot hex. He was a lecturer of law at the Melbourne Ciiiversity ill the ’fiftie-. 11l •■troll; dcmueralic !eaniii;is. la- erioimilly haiied from ( amida. While in Vietoria I" assisted in t la- lend dei' iie-- i I the Kureka Stoekaders.