SIMPLE MAJORITY RULE

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1065, 4 November 1911, Page 4

SIMPLE MAJORITY RULE

The Sec-Saw Argument.

We lay down the principle that simple majority rule is fair play. Any other rule is unfair play, it is government by minority. It is now 15 years since Kaiapoi electorate registered a majority vote for liquor. At every election since then she has had a majority vote for No-License. She has averaged 65 percent, for No-License over that time. Will the ordinary man tell us by what right the liquor people still dominate Kaiapoi ? The have less than 45 per cent. They have averaged less than that lor 12 years past, yet liquor rules in Kaiapoi. The absurd three-fifths handicap has made Kaiapoi to be ruled by a majority for 12 years. Is this right? This is not a solitary instance. Awarua and Taieri, in the South Island; OROUA, Wairarapa, Patea, MANAWATU, Egmont, Taranaki, Waipawa, Waikato and Manakau, in the North Island, have carried No-License at the last two polls by majority votes. Seven other electorates have carried No-License by majority vote AT THE LAST THREE POLLS. For six years Oroua and Manawatu have been ruled by liquor minorities. Had these electorates their RIGHTS the liquor business would have been gone, and the electorates would have settled down to quiet, sober life.

We ask by what right are these electorates denied their rights? Politicians make only one reply, viz., “ That simple majority would mean see-sawing,” which in their eyes is a much more dreadful thing than either the continuance of the liquor business, or the establishment of an undemocratic principle of government. We hope that the people will assert their rights, and say that, in their estimation, it is far worse to have a stable liquor rule than any see-sawing, and that no amount ot see-sawing could produce the misery and poverty that the liquor traffic does.

We hope also that the people will insist on their will being obeyed. We venture to affirm that the Opposition is ■ quite willing to assume the reins of Government, by SIMPLE MAJORITY, that it acquiesces in being put in or put out by simple majority rule. Change of Government is pretty unsettling, if it comes often ; and yet no man in his senses will insist on a three-fifths majority being requisite for this., Yet if the principle be insisted on that change is worse than a proven evil, it may have more applications than merely to the Liquor Traffic. The people had better set their foot at once on such a vicious principle, it is subversive of democracy. It is a traitor to the rights of the people. Set your heel on the threefifths handicap.