WELLINGTON .TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON .TOPICS

SUALMER TIME. II ISA [’POINTED WELLINGTON. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) WELLINGTON, July 30. T'lic great majority of the electors of Wellington and .suburbs are deeply disappointed by the rejection of Mr Sidey’s Summer Time Bill, and many of them are blaming the Government for their loss of many hours.of “daylight” during the approaching summer. This is scarcely fair to the Prime. Minister and his colleagues. It is true that Mr Coates gave a distinct lead to his party against the Bill and that four of his colleagues joined him in voting against the measure; hut no party pressure was applied and as a matter of fact the Hon. I. J. Kolleston, the Minister of Justice, the Hon. H. A. Wright, the Minister of Education, and the Hon. J. A. Young, the Minister of Health, followed Mr Sidcv into the “ Ayes ” lobby. The division was really a contest between Town and Country, the representatives of urban constituencies having their eyes upon the city workers mainly and the representatives of rural constituencies theirs upon the farmers in general and the dairv farmers in particular. THE ABSENTEES.

The absentees from the division were Sir Joseph Ward, the Hon. G. J. Anderson, the Hon. W. Nosworthy, Mr H. Atinore, Mr T. Henare, Mr IV. J. Jordan, Mr J. A. Lee, and Mr V. 11. hotter, while Sir Charles Statham, oc : enpying the chair, was not called upon to vote. Sir Joseph Ward, Mr H. Atinore, Hr IV. J. Jordan, Mr J. A. Lee and Mr V. H. Potter, representing, as they do, urban constituencies, probably would have voted with the “ Ayes,” but even this accession ol strength would not have turned the scale in iavour of the “ daylight savers ” as they still would have been two votes short of a tie, which would have given the Speaker an opportunity to exercise his casting vote. It is interesting to observe, however, that the thirty-three members of the House who voted for the continuance of daylight saving received 25,902 more votes at the last general election than did the thirtyeight members who opposed the measure, even after making a generous allowance of 3,700 votes, half the number of electors on the roll, for the Hon. Iv. S. Williams’s uneontested seat. THE COUNTRY QUOTA. These figures throw some light on the operation of the “ country quota,” winch one of these fine days the electors will begin to think about. Of the members of the House who voted or paired on Mr Sidey’s Bill thirty-eight opposed the measure and thirty-three supported it, the seventy-one having represented between them 3-18,323 votes at the last general election. This gave an average of 4,90 S tier member, Mr K. S. Williams again being given the number of votes he might have expected to poll had not his personal popularity secured him a “ walk-over.” It is significant that of the thirty-eight members who voted against daylight saving only five secured over the average number of votes at tlie general election of 1923, while the remaining opponents of the measures polled from 4,032, by Mr Lysnar in Gisborne, down to 211 by Mr Uni in the Southern Maori districts. Of the thirty-three members who supported the bill only ten members secured at tlic general election fewer than the average of -1.008, one of them touching 4,901, while twenty-three polled over five thousand.

HOW J,T OPERATES. There arc only two of the thirtyeight opponents of the Summer 'I into Bill who' polled over six thousand votes at the last election, .Mr McLennan, the member for Franklin, with 6,714, as a tribute to Mr Massey, and the Prime Minister, with 6,307 as a tribute to himself; but the supporters of the Bill included one member who polled over 8,000 votes, Mr J. S. Hickson, two who polled between 7,000 and 8,C()0 and eleven who polled between (5.000 and 7,000. The defeat of the Bill, in fact, was one of the obvious operations of the “ country quota ” a privilege conferred upon the* rural elec-

tors, as a temporary confession, some forty years ago, when polling booths were few and far between in tbe country districts and when transport facilities in the back-blocks were confined to the saddle horse and tbe bullock dray. .Many years ago these disadvantages were removed by the construction pf roads and bridges and railways, and yet tbe dead hand of tbe past is preserved to make a jest ol New Zealand’s boast of political equality.