COMPULSION ISSUE.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 November 1916, Page 6

COMPULSION ISSUE.

HOW iTltf: STATES VOTED. j WE.CT AUSTRALIA'S EXAMPLE, j NEW SOUTH WALES HOSTILE, j Returns of the polling on the compulsory service referendum in Australia,! showing the result of the count up to the evening of November 3, are contained in 'files of th& Melbourne newspapers rateived by the last mail. The majority against compulsion shown by the first returns published 011 the morning of October .30 was SS,!)U7; a ablegram published yesterday stated that the ma jority had been reduced, but that the result was beyond douut. Three States—Victoria, West Australia and Tasmania—and the Federal Territories, have recorded "Yes" majorities, while the other three States—•few South iVales, Queensland and South Australia—show "No'' majorities. The following tables show tlio .oting by States as publishedd 011 iuvctuber 4:— ~ "

MAJORITY iX FAVOR. 'Yes. Ko. Maj. Victoria, 325.0-2S 305,-113 19,013 W. Australia 50,710 35,900 40,810 Tasmania .. 1C,C84 30,056 10,028 Fed. Territories 1,889 1,172 727 Totals . 459,327 878,318 30,751 JIAJORITY 'AGAINST. Yes. !\o. ,\Taj. X.S.W 521.04S 442,718 121,170 Queensland .. 1-20,093 128,15 C 8,093 S. Australia .. 81,318 107,501 20,186 Totals '522,959 G7S,4OS 155,449 Com'mvealth &S2,2SG 1,050,05'! 74,0GS INCREASE OH' "YES" MAJORITY. A feature of the eturns published during last week was that the majority in each State steadily increased from day to day, and '•ecent jablegrams have shown that the "yes" majorities have continued to rise faster than the "Xo" majorities. The following table shows the majorities on October 30 and on November i:~ ~ Oct. SO Xov. 1 i Yes. Yes. Victoria t.—r. .-.1 H,929 10,015' West Australia ... ,34,201 49.810 Tasmania 8;512 10,029 T'cd. Territories 317 727' Ko. No. X.S.W. - P-..-TT, 113,0 M 121,170 Queensland ...G,119 8,093 South Australia, 24,783 26,158

Totals 143,930 155,449 Commonwealth 58,907 74,003 THE SOLDIERS' .VOTE. The total number of Sectors oh the rolls is 2,752,709. The returns given above ;omprise 2,0.19,2-10 votes. No official statement of the number of votes from members of the Australian Imperial Forces has been given, but the Melbourne Argus states that it is roughly 200,000. The manner in. which the soldiers' vote is distributed will not be announced A special regulation under the, War Precautions Act lias been approved 'by the Federal Executive Council with the object of legalis-' ing any action taken to prevent the vote of .he Anzacs on conscription being disclosed. The regulation permits the electoral officer to split the vote into States ind divisions, .nd merge it | witt other votes, and makes it in offence to publish it in any other form than that officially sanctioned by Hie regulation. VOTES BY ABSENTEES.

Towardp ihe ..ose of last iveek it ivns estimated that the number of absent votes still to be counted .vas 300,000. The returns do not include informal votes, which had not then been counted. Heavy floods were experienced in parts of Queensland on October 2S, and at eight centres in the electorate of Wide Bay the poll had to be postponed on account of the impassibility of roads. In those centres the vote was taken oil November 4. Those who were allowed to vote were those who are enrolled foi the subdivisions concerned, and who had not voted before.

With such a strong backing of Liberal and Labor Parliamentarians in the campaign it was thought that South Australia could be counted on for a '•Yes" majority vote, but for some maccountabie reason a iarge section of the electors of both town and country rejected the advice of thjeir leaders. West Australia, on the other hand, has the nonor of being the State return the largest "Yes" majority.

INFLUENCE OF WOMEI\ T . The irTofnce of the women's /ote is di:*-N='ri a writer in a Melbourne ■,-i,lie remarked that on the face ;X ihr returns it looked is if the woiiiLn's vote had been, on the ,vholo, more anti-conseriptionist than the men's, but there were so many other factors and cress currents at work thflt it is hard to come to any definite conclusic , on the subject. . 0 e cardinal fact is that in the State which »ent mm! solidly fo'r conscription— W«1 AuDtrJia—the male voters are to tta« female in the proportion of nearly three to two.

Next to ,Wesfc Australia Queensland shows the .greatest preponderance of mate population. Queensland shows a "No" majority, but it is a very small one, much smaller than might ha.ve been expected, in view of the conditions in Queensland, and of the fact that Queensland was the only State in Austrr.li i There the State Ministry was ant' • •; ov-criptioiiist. It seems, therefor?. -/.Li unreasonable to suppose that tli> y;e:.oncltrunee of male voters favored the "conscription :auso in Queensland. OTHE" FACTORS PREDOMINANT. The fact that New South >Vales_ went so overwhelmingly against conscription lis due at least in groat p:\vt other factors. Indeed, the strength of the ''No" vote" in some .ountry .onstitucßcics where the proportion of female voters is very low seems, to sliow that the main cause of tlw conscription defeat in New South Wales was a big swing over of the farmers and the rural population. The Liberal constituencies in and around Sydney in which the women's vote is proportionately very large went stronglv for conscription . Both South Australia and Tasmania show a small preponderance of male electors, the proportions being miven about the same in each State. But, while South Australia went, strongly iio," las-

mania is just as strong in the other direction. There remains Victoria, the one State in Australia 111 which there are more women voters than men. But Victoria shows a ''Yes" majority of b>,000, so that if there was a tendenev for women to vote "No" tc- 1 jreater proportionate extent than men in Victoria it ivas counteracted by other fv.ctors.