The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1931. A POLITICAL PACT.

Hokitika Guardian, 11 February 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1931. A POLITICAL PACT.

The introduction of the British Government’s Electoral Reform Bill, and tiie debate upon it in the House of Commons, make it clear that there is an understanding' between the Labour Party and the Liberal Party, by whose vote the Government remains in office. On all the provisions of the Bill there is likely to be lively discussk 11, for, besides changing the system of voting, it proposes to reduce the maximum sca,le of election expenses, to restrict the purposes for which the funds of political organisations may be applied, and to abolish the University constituencies. Blit by far the most controversial proposal is the substitution of the alternative vote or the present system of voting. This question is of as much interest to New Zealand as to- England, for this country has provided many examples of the caprice of the first-padt-the-post system. So long as Britain had only two parties, not a great, deal of interest was taken in the inefficiency of the old method as a test of popular opinion, but when the Liberals found themselves the smallest party in the State, and in numbers much smaller than their voting strength in the country entitled them to. they began to take a much keener interest in the question of reform, and the public began to realise that the existing system was crude. The last general election gave the Conservatives 260 members on a popular vote of 8,600.000, and the Labour Party 287 members in a vote of 8.300,OpO.. but the Liberals, with 5.300,000 votes, had only 59 members. The Literals want to remedy this manifest injustice by proportional representation, but .the Labour Party will not agree to his. They have agreed to introduce the alternative vote, a sort of halfway house, which the Liberals have accepted as geing a good deal better than nothing. The Liberals as the Auckland Star points out, are desperately anxious to save their party from utter annihilation, but they also wish to save Free Trade. They think that if they can keep the Government in office for a year or two longer, trade may improve and the risk of the Conservatives coming into power with a policy of Protection will be reduced. Thdre is also evidence that in respect

to general policy there is a growing understanding (lirtwoen< jthe liberals and the moderate section of the Labour I’arty. A lew days ago the President of the Board oi I rade made a speech in which lie showed some sympathy for the Liberal point of view and repudiated Socialism of the old centralised kind, and described the “true course” of economic change as the development ot a system of “public corporations” such as already exist. 'l'his has been happily described as waving pages torn out of the Liberal Yellow Book'. What the extremists think of Mr Graham’s friendly approach to Liberalism may he imagined, hut Mr Ramsay MacDonald is not worrying very much about, it. Ho knows that, thanks to the Liberals, he is safe for a considerable time.