ABOUT THE ELECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 4 December 1928, Page 7

ABOUT THE ELECTION

SOME SIGNIFICANT FACTS. POPULAR REPRESENTATION. (13y S. Saunders in Lyttelton •‘Times.’’) How tlie Reform majority of fiiftythree, secured at the general election of 192.5, was converted into a minority of twenty-seven at the general election just concluded, is a- problem which 110 one seems able to solve satisfactorily. Of course, there were the two by-elections, one at Eden and •the other at Raglan, in which two Labour members stepped into the shoes of two Reform Ministers, Sir James Parr having been appointed High Commissioner for the Dominion in London, and the Hon R. I. Bollard, a simple, lovable man, having passed away. Jt was expected at the time of their occurrence, however, that these two losses to Reform would be readily repaired by tbe dominant party at the succeeding general election. and no one, save perhaps the more optimistic members of the Eabour Party, saw the “writing on the wall” which stood out even then for interpretation. Air H. G. K. Hason, who made hi.s way into the House as member for Eden, now figures as member for Auckland Suburbs, tlie expansion of the “Queen City” (having again necessitated a rearrangement of its electoral boundaries. He was supposed to have intercepted by the merest chance Sir James Gunson’s march 11.0011 Parliament three years ago, but be has defeated Sir James again, and lie is tlie kind of man that sticks. The return of Mr AV. L. Martin for the second time as member for Raglan obtains more than passing intoiest from the fact that lie is a farmer, and a sane, capable farmer at that, who has attached himself to tlie Labour movement, through sheer conviction and presents the case lor the man on the land with as much fluency and with more understanding than doc Air Holland himself. At the by-elec-tion which first sent him to the House lie polled 2241 votes, while his four opponents between them polled .‘Mil. \t the recent general election he poll ml 4205 votes and his two opponent;;j:A81, leaving him with a clear advantage of 82-1 votes. Surely the significance of these figures needs no emphasis. the three parties. The House just elected seems t< contain twenty-nine members more or less closely attached to the United Partv. twenty-seven followers of tin Reform creed, and nineteen hound by tin- rites of their order to the tenets of the Labour Party. Tn addition to this somewhat motley company of differing legislators, there is Sii Chillies Statham, an Independent by temperament and conviction, who is marked down for the Speakership in recognition of the services he already hasrendered to Parliament and the community in that capacity. Ju-st how the contending parties will comport themselves during the approaching short session remains to he seen. It is generally expected that as early a.possible alter the due observance of the formal proceedings Sir Joseph Ward, as leader of the United Party, having taken possession ol the official Opposition benches, will submit a motion expressing lack of confidence in the Government and that by tbe end of the. week the whole business of the ■session will be finished. That, at any rate, will be the wish of the immediate contending parties. The Labour Party, which will bo by no means it negligible factor in the new House, may elect to prolong the proceedings by any or all tlie means it will have at its disposal. Air Holland, however, is an experencod tactician, and be is not likely to waste time at this stage of tlie proceedings for no better purpose than the embarrassment of tlie leaders of the other parties. It has been suggested seriously by several newspaper correspondents that Labour should now be given its opportunity on the Treasury Denches, with tli(> Reform Party and the United Party standing by in the interests of the public; but even if Mr Holland and his followers were disposed to accept responsibility under such tutelage, the long-suffering public would have something to say in the matter, finite apart from the unconstitutional character of the .arrangement. Labour legislation might be ellecfively revised during tlie sitting ol Parliament. but Orders-in-Council would be tbe ready instruments of the Labour Government during the recess. HAPHAZARD A!ETTTODS.

The- approach of the throe principal parties engaged in tlie recent election to something like the same iiunierica 1 strength lias produced several curious and not very satisfactory results. Tn the first place, it has ended in a distribution of votes which has loft the successful candidates with less support than lias been given to the unsuccessful candidates. On a hasty examination of the figures it appears that the seventy-six European members of the House, taken in hulk, are minority representatives. That is to say. between them they have secured fewer than half the votes polled. This, as far as can he ascertained from the records, is the first occasion on which this kind of thing has happened in the history of the Dominion. No fewer than thirty-eight, one-hair of the total number of elected candidates. received fewer than half the votes cast in their constituencies. Nineteen of those were members of the Deform Party, thirteen members of the United Party, and six of them mom hers of flip Labour Party. Only eight of the twenty-seven 'elected members of the Reform Party receiv-

ed as many as half the votes polled in their constituencies, while as man,, as thirteen members of the Labour Party obtained this distinction. Mr Holland and the rank and file of his party, when they .settle down to serious business, will he reminding theii successors in the, occupation of the Official Opposition ./benches of this fact. The Electoral Department for the purposes of administration divides* the Dominion into seven districts o' irregular size with some communit of interests'. The Auckland district with twenty-three members, lias filfteo’ minority representatives, the Veiling t n district five, the Canterbury d.is trict five, and the Otago district four, while the remaining minority representatives are distributed amoir the three smaller districts where tin competition for Parliamentary privi ledges perhaps is not so keen as it i 1 in the large cities and their suburbai districts. A CRYING NEED. Several remedies* have been pre scribed for the persistence of minority rule, but neither Parliament nor tin electors have displayed much interest in any of them. Ike average menihei of the House of Representatives if grateful to the bridge, that has carried him over the stream to the goal ol his ambition, and he has persuaded himself it is the very Lost structure that could ibe devised. Ike average elector, who takes an interest in politics only for a week or two 'before each triennial (“lection, thinks what was good enough for his lather and for his grandfather, and what still is in vogue in the Mother. Country, is good enough for him. The debacle that has overtaken the Deform Party probably will go towards strengthen ing him in this opinion. The check to the Labour Party may bring more responsible people to the same way of thinking. The pressing need for reform is plainly demonstrated, however, by the fact that at the recent election, the United Party secured a seat for every 8281 votes it polled while the Reform Party secured 1 seat only for every 9900 votes and tlu Uabour Party for only every 10,317 votes. The Reform Party has no rigid to complain of such results as these since in the past it has enjoyed most of the luck of the game; but perhaps its present experience may set it thinking of the opportunities it has neglected. 'Sir Joseph Ward included in hi.s election programme the system of preferential voting, which is good enough as far as it goes; but it by no means reaches the root of the evil, and if Sir Joseph wishes Parliament to l)i“ really representative of the people—“the express image of the nation,” as Burke has it—he will take bis courage in both hands and give the country what it really requires. It would he better to fail in such ar enterprise . limn to .succeed in a less heroic undertaking.