Proportional Representation. Auckland, January 23.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 239, 28 January 1888, Page 4

Proportional Representation. Auckland, January 23.

Mr W. J. Speight delivered an Address last evening in the Excelsior ' Hail-under the auspices of the New Zealand Radical Eeform League, There was a fair attendance. The subject of the lecture was ' < Proportional Representation.," Mr Thos. Peacock, M.H.R., was voted to the chair. He briefly, thanked the meeting: for electing him to the chair. He said lie had, during last session, drafted a bill to deal with the question of representation in the city and suburbs. Unfortunately, it did not coaje up for second reading, but he hoped next session to be more successful. He then briefly introduced the speaker; He also read an apology from Mr F. Moss, M..H.R., for not being able toattend, owing to ill-health. Mr Speight said that although he had not prepared a paper, still he had given the matter full consideration, but he disliked reading papers. Personal representation had always been aimed at, but without success so far. The general idea was that mbn should be , represented, and not property, but the very efforts of the best friends of the people had been to render things even worse than they were before. The present system had been to divide the country into electoral districts, and to equalise the number of elector?. The man who was then elected had full control of the district. Such a system was wrong. They must discard the idea that local majorities should rule the country. The politicians of England had recognised that an enormous number of the people were unrepresented, and had sought out a remedy. Under single electorates persons who possessed a community of interest were compelled lo vote in quite another district. These divisions pulled down the identity of the country and compelled the representa- ( tives to try and do as much as possible for their particular districts. Members were necessitated to toady to their constituents for the sake of keeping their political existence. Such a ■ state . of things would be altered only by proportional representation. Perhaps there were some who did not think that the present system was so very bad. Ho held that in the country the whole people should rule, and then a majority would rule in Parliament, but not, in localities. Under party government a series of compromises within the governing party was essential to its existence. A majority decided there as elsewhere, and the consequence was thao a mero majority of a majority— the majority- of a party which is a majority of y the House — working under the gaise of " the Government of the people by the will of its majority," when in reality the minority of the peqple, as represented, controlled. Such a system was surely, unsatisfactory. He _cquld not help thinking that if minorities had been heard frqm the first, their Public Works Scheme would nob haye run riot as it had done. When a man could feel that oven if he offended his own locality he had the country at his back, then they could aot with greater independency. ■ With regard ,to, the, idea of ■ the 4 "majority ruling, the -comparison of 4 returns regarding the votes redorded at the* English elections in the years 1874, 1880, and 1886 is moat.intoyesting. In 1874 the Tories came into power | with a. -majority of 50 members in the House, and yet th,at party,, by the votos easy for its, members, polled .£OO,OOO vptes less .than their , opponents,: the numbers, bein'ffjll^OOjOOOiforthe Tories,, as against 1,4J00,00d votes cast~,foiv their .opponents twh'o remained ,' in opposition. , tJji. 1,880 anti-Congervatives elected, polled 1 ,800,000 .forl 414 s^ats, , as"; "against, 1,420,000 •recteiyed. by / the .^Conservatives ( returned.;' for /2§&* seats-f- a^ majority , of ;17d seats f6r^Bo,ooo'-y f .oip < s,.,when in reality, the* seats,, 'dividing tho yc-lcSfC^sb |or sue-. ccs > sfuL' ; candiclates T on, either side,, of the, HoW'by.^he^ nu^ber^oC Yeats, .ought, to^ , brave tfceen,* if- votes, were of; equal yalue', *370 f prl the Liberate a^d tfb fete ppfionente. , >hai| JJ S6 fi memfeers /^po /e«r 7^hilo f m n^lB,Bo q| Jg^.jSeats t m Ci £he jjt,wo> t eleptipns ,wa.s .manorjLty to b^put^aside^as^ mjitper ? pf|Utt{le L impojrfc^nce j '.^and,' ,"]?y. a .-ehapgo ias.the i Mi'iiBtry?!Pt«|?,4 a-S^PlP^j 1 '^ 118 —''^ Jw' c -fqreign d^g}estic«pplioXiPfv*"6,i^Bij>ire4 M This y^iTOW^Wf^^X ty.us,e,o| *: !^ni%nty yi^6|e4nu e^^W^ n *mfi9t t Q)}b oljthiaWfe^pf f ra,pst.un§qual > VBi?r i e|gnv ; rte&iori % ; ;tf , |Ing:.;

land from LincolnWrVtofde^orishire, there were on the south-east side 99 county seats ab the v <> fe]ecfton, of „188.0. In those constttueiKjies the Liberals polled 96,000 votes, as fcgainst'llfyOOO bythe Conservatives. This ( voting,' 'according to thb rule of dividing thb number of votes' by the" number -of -seats. 1 should have given ' the re- • I iurn of 40 Liberals, As against? 69Cohserva^ tives. There 1 were' actually returned but 15 Liberals with 84 Tories, and of these" 15' Liberal seats 5i were secured by the faob of there being that riumbert of threecoroiered constituencies. Turning to the' last election, 1886.: .Followers of Mr Gladstone to the number of 196 were elected members, getting, . 1,-347,983 votes.. 85 \ Home Rulers, obtaining 99,669 votes, wore olocted. < 1,106,651, votes returned 316 Conservatives; 437,456 votes only secured the election of 73 members of the new party of " Liberal Unionist's." In all 2,971,759 votes were , cast; • The Conservatives and [Unionists combined only polled about 5 per centi > more than Mr Gladstone's following-, and yet the former have i •a majority of 20 peri cent, of the, whole , House. Under the wiLe before applied the proper composition of the present Houbo would be : GJadstonians, who obtained 196 j seats, should have had 304—108 moro ; Tories, who obtained>3l6 seats, should have, had but 249—67 less \ Unionists, who got 73, should have Jiad 94—21 more ; and Home Rulers,', who # ofc 85 seats, would have had to add anobtav grievance to '.their stocki for they' would be reduced to the. small band of 22 members. That had resulted an the formation of a Proportional Representation Society, in ' winch were 207 members of the British Parliament. Taking the returns for the whole colony, they would find that 86 seats were contested by 219 candidates. Tho ! B'6 elected men received 60,052 ; the unsuccessful, 51,859 votes - the majority being only 8,193. ' Nearly half the number of voters whb voted were to-day without a single representative in Parliament for whom they voted. The' average' vote received by the elected men was 690. n The average vote recorded in >each bf the 86 ncontested districts was 1,301, so ' that in each electoral district in the colony 611 voters who voted are witflimit representation in Parliament. There are 21 members' (elected who received a minority vote in their respective districts. There were, of •oonrfce, cases in which there were more, thhan two candidates for the single" seat. l If to the 51,859 electors who iailod to cast a iiote assisting to the return' of a solitfcary member there be added the votes of those 8,193 electors whose votes cast for the successful men. were not needed for their 'election, being the total' majority, we /have, as the real "waste of voting power at tho last general election, i60«052 votes. From this the safe conclusion is arrived at that at all general elections, •vtader the single seat system, in which the pjuccessful men poll a majority, the waste of voting power is always determined by the number of votes cast for the successful candidate, the figures will be identical. In the North all the seats except oner^ AuckLand City Central, for which; Sir G. Grey was elected unopposed — were contested; For the 38 seats 98 candidates went to the poll, for whom 51,515 votes were recorded. The 38 elected men obtained 27,400 votes; and their opponents, 24,115 —majority of 3,285. From this it will be seen thafc J 24,115 voters who voted in" the North Island have obtained no representatives at all. Divided into Provincial Districts, the following was the North Island'! voting t— '

The highest vote cast to elect a candidate in the North Island was in the case of Mr Ormond, at Napier, who obtained 1,008 votes. The lowest was in the case of Mr Marchant, at New Plymouth, who was elected, though receiving but 383 votes. In the South Island, with '52 seats of which 4 were uncontested, 48 electorates had 121 candidates for whom 6.0,396 votes were recorded. The 48 elected members received' 32,6s2 of these, and the unsuc'cess-, ful 27,744 votes, a majority of 4,908. Divided into provincial districts as in the examplesgiven of the North Island, they had ; the following :—: —

The highest vote cast toelecb a candidate in the South Island wag; ab GreymOuth, , where Mr Guinness received 1,177. The lowest was at Invercargill, where Mr FeldI wick wae elected, bavins: received but 356 vote's out of 1,277 polled. Thirty-nine, rejected men received more votes than Mr Feldwick, ranging from 991 to 358. In two electoral districts two re: jected men in each received a higher number of votes 5 than -the member for Invercar,gill. ' The average vote cast for the elected men was6Bo(4lless thaninthellTqrbhlsland)^ and the average-total vote east in! each electoral district was 1,255 (4k less than in. North Island). ' If the North returned", members upon,' the same eloctive quota as the South', as it "would be entitled 'to, 41 members in place of 38. In each jbf the 48 contested districts tlhfere" was 'an' average minority vote' of '578 which 'failed' to'^e, successful in returning any candidate. > ' , Nine South- Island men 'elected received' but a minority 1 of the voters cast ' in their I districts. ' The n'ames'and minorities w6re :- —Seymour 413, Dodson 284; Pe'i'civa! 39, O'Callagliari liev'McGre'goi- 104, fto'ss'2l4,, ,Ho ( dgkinson 340, t( . 324 :) k (m3,' , majority over the.secdhd l 'ciinclidate was one vote), a'nd, Feld4icft*,|'s6j|*(electedf,^as be^or6 stated, witih bufc ; 3^6" votes). !> fir'two'cfisth'ct^ , -^Nelson and Southla^nd^th'e 11 WHolb ' ; of ' the elected' m f e'n' were in ! 'a ii minorib^'re» spectively of > 584nd [ l, ) 024 ! &i to votes Uiider> the pfesehb System th'ere^'was so Inuch c6m^rom T ising i thafc l lie l De'li^v!ed ! b'he'^', aiad been gov6i'n'6d l! b^a4nfn;or%'fbV thje 1 last J6" yparSs Surely tuiider such-' cirouni-' ( .stances things we"rejabout, asJtaad as'-they> -could'.'beo;.' W,eU', h6wi.wa3"tliis st^te of bhingsjj to/ibe remedied only^bej ,dpne 4 by^ the tproptiiitionaliire^resentationl i,system«t iiuOSheU ■iftiutherahce-i^'of^^^tbiß: iPys'tem in England was in the'jtihtthds gi Jcj,nygryivpolw^rful jcKganiskubnVai'Vselbh"; ]kilbbocW a^nitasuheadymandl ,nuiri>firjlng^aTOon'g'itsAi6nibers^someloi^tKe fMiembofMvof tbeiHoiisffof jCompionß.Qn bojiK sides. «Ifchal,beeri, 4 at wtfrka j^uoAUng ifcw jy J e&rs#fciS&^ppej3,ik threttaju© Cfeme%»lioi ,^pply. j „}M)\q£ <Sodielq« thAss< 'fotl ?iib4«afiaittf pbjectiJihe-adoßfciondofrisucKi'ahi'Qie^tdral! «ByBtem.Mftßo*rill tfecuiil^iis'faria^.'in^y b*<J€

(a) That < "eVSr*y"vol^' ; caB^Bh"a]l'' "have equal power, and. value "jta ,the -its ■nembers; ' (6) J ThalJ/he ? waste of Voting ijower, now so large, from minorities failing to obtain, any representa-, tion, ana the number of votes needlessly, cast for -popular candidate's 1 in 1 districts where one or other of the tolitical*- parties are in .a great majority, fthall be.reduced to a minimum ; (c) That the'tuUest choice shall be allowed to every ydfcei' 1 " in deciding who shall be his personal ' (not • locality) representative. The mode by which this is proposed <id be reached' is ingenious, and at ijhe ' first glance • may appear complex, but when 1 understood is simple in the extreme. Existing single seats are grouped up into natural combined districts ; -(Mr Hare's plan, of which this is a modification, threw the whole country into one electorate) ; bne"numbev of seats for such combined district having been fixed, candidates, to any number and from any place, are nominated in writing, each by snch section of the electors or even individual electors as may wish. Every voter receives on the polling day a paper containing an alphabetical list of • the candidates proposed throughout the entire district— and against the names in this paper the voter marks tho candidates in the order in which he prefers them, marking one, a few, or all of the names, as he may elect. This paper given in, the voter's work is done : so that tho • charge of the system being' complex is not true, at all events os relates to the duty of the voter. The returning officer having received the papers, they are sorted into heaps as belonging to the various candidates whoso names are marked first in the order of each voter's preference on the voting papers. When the returning officer has ascertained the total number of votes cast, after casting out all informal papers, he divides the number of papers by a number ove more than the number of seats before docided upon'as belonging to the district ; , and the next highest number to tho quotient thus obtained gives what is termed " the elective quota for that district, no candidate being elected 1 who after the voting papers had been dealt with in the manner following has not obtained that quota. The difficulty of one man having much more than the required quota had been obviated by making each voter's paper transferable to a candidate for whom he had voted in second,' third or 4 fourth order. ,Mr Speight then devoted some time to explaining the details of the new system, and illustrated it upon the blackboard with chalk.- For his purpose he supposed an election at which 8,000 votes are given for three seats ; 8,000 divided by 3 plus 1 is 2,000, and the quota will be 2,001, by the rule taking- the next highest number to the quotient as the quota. Any candidate receiving 2,001 votes must be elected, because 2,001 multiplied by 3 equals 6,003, leaving only 1,997 for the remaining man •or men — not ' a quota. The objection to the system was that new men had a poor chance', but they should remember that the quota governed everything, and a newm an, if w6rth anything, would get the quota. It was also stated that the system was complex, but he thought that was a 1 bugbear which would be raised by those who had an interest in retaining the ipresent system. For his part he thought that the man who could not mark the candidates in the order which he preferred them, should be disenfranchised. The work of the voter was quite simple, and the skilled officials would look after the rest. He was glad to see that the Auckland Star had devoted considerable space to the matter, and that the morning journal had also explained the system in a leading article. That was a good sign. He was satisfied J that something like such a system of pro* ; portionai representation must ultimately be brought into force. He would ask them to examine the system, and if i they really believed in it, to strain every nerve to bring it into operation. If such a system was in force, they would nob find every district howling to Wellington for money. Why, one man had applied for £10, and they seemed to forget that the money went through a greased sieve, and a good deal was lost on the way. He had been told that manhood suffrage was the cause of all their trouble, but it was not so.. The fault lay in the system, and it required to bo altered. ,ln answer to questions, Mr Speight said that similar systems were now in vogue in Denmark and Switzerland. This system was also used in France in a modified state. Mr Peacock also devoted a few moments to more fully explaining the system. He pointed out that the element of chance With regard to the election of the second candidate was very remote. That matter' 'had been worked out mathematically. He quoted from the writings of John Stuart Mill with reference to minorities being unrepresented. In a democracy the majority must riile, but were not the minority entitled to be heard ? In a real democracy all must be equally represented. Mr W. Duncan thanked Mr Speight for his lucid explanation of the system, and moved a ' vote of thanks to him on behalf of the members of the league. This was seconded by Mr Jeune, and was carried by acclamation. A vote of thanks to the chair terminated the proceedings. I ' ' Auckland Star.

.1 < to Nelson . . 4 Weatlaud 2 Marlborough 2 Canterbury 17 Otigo .. 17 Southland 6 J South Island 48 '111 So,? UJ 2,598 2,007 1,186 12,197 11,606 3,058 32,652 <y "3 o> <s a Q 2,656 1.601 1,173 8,932 9,300 4,082 27,744 ■i- % 58 406 .. I 13 3 265 2,306 1,024 "tS", 4,908 } S.o, I

Auckland . . Tarauaki . . Hawkc'B Bay Wellington.. 8 8 to 19 3 12 CO 13.038 1,762 3,593 9,007 -a a i Q 12.045 1,700 3,609 6,761 * s 993 .. 62 .. .. 16 2,246 .. North Island 38 27,103 24,115 3,285J||