The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1930. BRITISH ELECTORAL REFORM.

Hokitika Guardian, 18 March 1931, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1930. BRITISH ELECTORAL REFORM.

Not long ago. when the MacDonald Government decided to introduce'- an i'dcctoral Keiorm Bill, iL was commonly reported that this measure was intended to hribe the Liberals into supporting the Trades Disputes Bill. JJut the Liberals indignantly repudiated the suggestion, and as a matter of iaet it was owing to their disapproval of the Trades Disputes Bill that a 1

loslilc amendment was carried and the Bill was subsequently withdrawn. Meantime the (doctoral Reform Bill lias boon running tim gauntlet of criticism lmrled at it from all sides of the House at once, The Bill embodies the Alternative Vote, and while Conservatives like Sir Samuel Hoard ami Sir A. Chamberlain denounce tills expedient aa calculated to injure Parliamentary institutions by destroying tbe party system, tunny Labour members hold that tile proposed innovation would undermine Labour ns a political force. Amid all this turmoil it is well to remember that the Alternative Vote—which is a sort of stepping-stone toward Proportional Representation—was strongly recommended in 1910 by a Royal Commission as the best cure for the worst evils and defects of the existing “first past the post’’ system. However, in 1917 a. Parliamentary Conlerenee made a unanimous recommendation in favour of trying Proportional Representation in a number of constituencies, with a majority recommendation that the Alternative Vote should he applied in all other electorates. Tn that year, during the debate on the Representation Bill, the Alternative Vote was strongly supported by Sir H. Samuel and Sir J. Simon as thoroughly Liberal .in choraeter; and, indeed, it is distinctly Liberal in (harder, that wo do not need to explain Liberal advocacy of the measure hv assuming that the Liberals see in it their last chance of regaining political power. Naturally the squabble over the Electoral Reform Bill, says a writer in the Auckland Star, has not helped to consolidate any of the parties, which are all displaying tendencies toward disintegration. Afr Baldwin, though still nominal head of the Conservatives, has no very secure hold on their allegiance. and his latest utterances read very like a carefully-guarded appeal to the Liberals to collie into the Conservative fold and “join ill the task of mitio.mil restoration.” But several leading Liberals have spurned Mr Baldwin’s offer, professing to see in it itn insidious cloak for Protectionist designs upon the purity and integrity of Free Trade. But while Liberals and Conservatives are thus divided against themselves, there is more disunion and internal hostility in the Labour Party. The old line of cleavage between the obdurate “Clydesiders” and the Moderates is now almost lost sight of in the confusion that lias gathered round the revolt of Sir Oswald Mosley and his challenge to the party leaders. Tn such conditions an alliance between Moderate Labour and the Liberals is by no means inconceivable. But any move in this direction would, of course, nullify at once Mr Bodlwin’s rather eov and ineffectual attempt to work himself into the good graces of the Liberals and induce them ultimate]'.- to throw over Air Lloyd George and coalesce with the Conservatives.