“NO MORAL RIGHT”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8358, 19 February 1913, Page 3

“NO MORAL RIGHT”

GOVERNMENT CALLED UPON TO RESIGN. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. A petition demanding proportional representation and the resignation of the Massey Government is at present being circulated and signed in Wellington. The petition originated in local labour quarters, and its preamble is as follows; "Whereas the Massey Government at present in power in New Zealand ana legislating and governing in the interests of the land monopolists and exploiters generally, represent barely one-thrrn of the electorate, having polled, even with their four renegade Liberal supporters, little more than one vote out of every three cast at the general election of 1911. we, the undersigned electors of New Zealand, hereby call upon the said Government to introduce and pass during this year's session of Parliament a measure for the election of members of the so-called House of Representatives by means of the system known as proportional representation, and then resign the position of power and profit, to which, whatever the law may say, they have no moral right, so that the electors of New Zealand may have for the first time an opportunity of electing a true House of Representatives in which each school of political thought shall be lepresented in direct proportion to its voting strength throughout the country." it is stated that the petition is being vigorously canvassed and freely signed.