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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5422, 13 August 1878, Page 2

Thebe are few directions in which the baldness and lack of real political_ information possessed by newspaper writers displays itself so conspicuously as when they come to deal with any of the essential principles of government. A writer in our morning contemporary has taken upon himself to pronounce on the merits of Hare’s system, and exposes himself to the charge of ignorance of the subject he undertakes to criticise, or of much disingenuousness. The article betrays a failure to appreciate the merits of Hare’s scheme, or a desire to misrepresent it. The writer begins by stating that it “is conceived and elaborated in a philosophic spirit,” leaving the impression that it is a mere fine-spun theory incapable of practical application. Nothing is further from the fact, the scheme is admirably practical. This was among the first objections to it ; and the exaggerated notion of its perplexity had the effect of preventing for somp time the attention which its merits entitled it to. Bub the sufficient answer to that objection is the fact that it has been tried with the most com plcto success, and that not on a merely municipal or provincial scale. In the kingdom of Denmark, whore personal representation has been adopted, a scheme nearly identical with Hare’s has been found to work without any friction or difficulty. Another fallacy in the article Is that the plan is not fitted to a new country, where there aiv few prominent men who as politicians would command universal recognition. In proportion to our numbers, ouv political thinkers avo as numerous and as well known as they aro in England ; apart from which, tho present is by far the most favorable time that will occur for tho application of tho principle. If it be true that our Legislative Assemblies are deteriorating, should we nob seek by every practical means to stay the downward course by the introduction of such measures as will ensure the enlistment of [tho best minds of the colony in tho service of tho State. The adoption of such a scheme would be an incentive to our best men to take part in tho politics of the country. Had such an idea as this presented itself to the framers of the American Constitution, these patriotic men would readily have seized noon it, and thereby have saved American Democracy from its greatest reproach and weakness, wh ! > it would have awakened the ambition of tin most highly cultivated minds of the Republic for place and office m the Federal and State Assemblies, whereas now they systematically refuse to occupy such positions. What can bo more deplorable than, to find the higher minds of a country standing aloof from its politic.* '{ As a corrective lor this evil Hare's system may bo accepted as a remedy. It is puerile to talk of a lack of men. Let tho instructed minority in every constituency be given tho chanoo to ho fairly represented, and wo may safely leave it to them to elect fitting representatives. The

writer in our contemporary, with a most ingenuous naivete , says : “ There ia no call to argue strongly for or against any particular mode of voting ; there is room, in fact, fur a wide diversity of opinion; the (jreat desideratum is to obtain a full and free expression of the mind of the people at any given time.” Now, this is an admirable piece of logic. How is the mind of the people to be expressed, at least practically, but by a method of voting! Does not ouc present mode, of voting, which secures but a partial represention of the people, most effectually prevent the full expression of the mind of the country! and ia not the present Government’s Electoral BUI “a really effective measure” to perpetuate this state of things ? And is it not the special aim of Hare's plan to secure “ the full and free expression of the mind of the people,” man for man,by the personal representation of every individual? The failure to appreciate the subject is most fully shown by the endorsement of the three-cornered method as the least objectionable mode of representing minorities which has yet been hit upon. So far from that being so we hold the cumulative method of voting, which is open to many objections, as far preferable. Various methods have been before the world now for some time, with this result, that all the most eminent political thinkers in France, Germany, and Europe generally, and that of every shade of political opinion, accept Hare’s method as the very thing needed. It is accepted by the advocates of Democracy as the logical outcome of its principles, and by the opponents thereof as the corrective of its evils.