WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 June 1931, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

ELECTORAL REFORM

WINSTON C'HCRCHILL’S APPEAL

(Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, June 8

Although the outline of .V!r Winston ("I iiirehill’s appeal in the House of Commons the other tiny for the reform of the system of electing members to the “.Mother of Pai liament” obviously suffered some mutilation in its transmission from thi' other end of the world, il could do something towards awakening thinking people here to the need of rati ion I reform in the constitution of the Legislative Assembly ol this country. In the cablegrams published in the newspapers towards the cud of last week .Mr Churchill was made to sav that at the last goner 1 election at Home—that of 1929—20,000 votes were required to return a Labourite to Parliament, 23.000 to return a Conservative and 100,000 a Lib. end. As a matter of fact the average Labour successful vote, to he precise, was 29,127, the average Conservative 33.321 and the average Liberal 89,81b. No wonder that in view of this distortion of representation Mr Lloyd George, the Liberal Leader, has been clamouring for proportional voting.

SOME ALTERNATIVES. It was on the motion for the third reading of the Electoral Reform Bill in the House of Commons- that Air Churchill obtained bis opportunity to talk on Ibis subject. No doubt ho did so to some purpose, hut the cable service, quite naturally, with its eye on (he Epsom Derby and the New Zealand cricketers, found more popular materia! dose at band. Mr Churchill is -represented as saying, however, that “proportional representation is incomparably the fairest and most scientific way of obtaining the public will.” He also gave it as his opinion that the second ballot was far superior to “the alternative vote method'’ which. in bis opinion, “determined candidates.” Mr Churchill’s uurpo-.se in speaking was to support a Conservative motion for. the rejection of the third reading of the 1 >ill promoted by the Government: with the obvious purpose of reaching a compromise between the Labour and Liberal parties. The division left the Labour Government with a majority of fifty.

OUR OWN DELUSION. New Zealand which, in a general sort of way, has deluded ifcsoll into believing its electoral system to be the equal of the best in' the world, is as

i! matter of fact in this respect as far heli iin I some .of the progrosivo states el Europe ami America as.is the Mother Country Tierself. It is true that this Dominion every sixth year—with the pardonable exception it is experiencing jnsc now—adjusts the size of its parliamentary constituencies to too numbers of their respective populations: Imt even here it gives an advantage ot 28 per cent, to the Qualified electors who happen to live outside the towns and cities, may he less than a stones throw from the folk shorn of more than a fourth of their representation. Ihc Mother Count 1 y affords in this respect to even a greater extent, the number of electors in this constituency or that apparently being of little consideration if any thought at all. It is obviously not to the Mother Country New Zealand should turn in this respect.

MINORITY KCLE. The system of election maintained in New Zealand. as in the Mother Countrv, is in pin© eases out of ten a system of minority rule so far as the* majority of the electors are concerned. Since Mr Seddon's triumphal victory in 1905 and the reflection of the great Leader’s popularity in 1908 no party has secured a majority of the votes recorded at the polls. In 19M Reform polled D.- per cent, of the votes recorded; in 1919 38.9 per cent.: in 1922, •13.3 per cent, and in 1925, .16.7 per emit., while in 1928 the party with 30.5 of the votes polled was defeated In- the GO per cent, recorded by the Ini led and Labour parties together. flu rely with such experiences accumulating with the passing years thinking people, who do not happen to be members of Parliament, should he giving some attention to the pro-

gress that is being made by communities which do not choose to he governed bv minorities. Any way the sub joct is worth thinking about.