PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16487, 28 February 1914, Page 14

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

MR G. M. BUTTERWORTH’S VIEWS. ADDRESS TO WOMEN’S POLITICAL LEAGUE. A meeting of the Women’s Social and Political League was held at the Chamber of Commerce Hall last evening, the principal business being an address on “Proportional Representation” delivered by Mr G. M. Butterworth. Mrs Newell occupied the chair, and there was a good attendance of members. The secretary (Mrs Morton) stated that the Hon W. F. Massey had promised to deliver an ■. address to the League when next in Christchurch.

Mr Butterworth said that he was not a supporter' of proportional representation, at least as applied to tho Lower House. Party government was merely a substitute or covering for government by force, and it was inevitable that extremely small minorities should always lack of representation. The real driving power in a nation was neither the Upper House nor tho Lower House, but the will of the people driving both. That will must be made an educated and discriminative will if any nation wished to maintain its place as a civilised state. The demand for democracy which had arisen in many countries had, in his opinion, arisen because the abolition of the feudal 6ystem left a gap which had not yet been filled. He would ask his hearers to look at this proportional representation from tlie English standpoint. From the accession of William of Orange till 1832, England was an oligarchy, but tho nation was behind the form of Government, and they got just as good Prime Ministers us had ever been found since.

In Britain, continued tho speaker, the Upper House had allowed itself to become merely a revising chamber. That was quite a modern innovation. It had been copied in the dominions, but there had been a sad neglect of their responsibilities on tho part of those who framed the constitutions of colonial upper chambers. The principle of nominating members by the party in power for purely political ends was unsound and undesirable. Here in New Zealand they ought to ask themselves what tho Upper House was intended to do. If it was intended to be a 'mere puppet it had no excuse for existence. In the English Constitution tho King stood for compromise, and the Upper House should strengthen the hands of the King. The problem in devising a voting system was to avoid what had just happened in Britain, \yhere at a by-election a candidate had been elected to Parliament by a minority of the votes at tho poll. The trouble was that there could never be any escape from a straight-out vote. When bitter political controversies were in the air it would be ridiculous to ask a London voter , not to give a first vote for a candidate, because ho supported Home Rule, but to give him a second preference, because no supported a bridge across the Thames. New Zealand had borrowed a bad system front Britain in splitting its city constituencies into a number of electorates, continued Mr Butterworth. In York the town was run by the tradespeople. York returned two members, and the tradespeople considered it would he best for trade if they returned one Liberal and one Conservative, and that was just what they did. Tho effect was that York had no representation at all. The break-away of the Labour Party from tho Liberal Party meant the introduction of a third party into British politics—a party that placed class before patriotism. What would be thought of a party that placed the interests of the upper classes before tho interests of the nation? Hero in New Zealand the Labour Party was inclined to offer its support to the Liberals in return for a pledge that proportionate representation should be granted. But liow would proportionate representation result in New Zealand? New Zealand was generally run by one or two or half a dozen men. Measures like tho rating on unimproved values measure were put through Parliament without debate and without any discussion in the country. When they found a minority ruling a country they would generally find that minority was in deadly earnest and probably deserved to rule. Mr Butterworth asked his audience if they were not convinced that at the last general election the people as a wholo were heartily sick of tho Liberal Party. Tho popular will was done, and tho Liberal Party went out. Could any better result have been obtained under proportionate representation? He failed to see that proportionate representation would confer any extra power on tho active will of the people. It was nonsense to say that the man in the street was as well qualified to vote as the governor of a bank or the head of Dalgety’s.

Mr Butterworth replied to a number of questions, and at tho conclusion was accorded a hearty vote of thanks.