DISJOINTED POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1918, Page 6

DISJOINTED POLITICS.

FARMERS' DISCOVERY. ' PROPOSED 11EI'0R.\I. . 5 (Contributed.) •weral branches of the New yjr.uaTnl l'armers' Union liave discovered there is something saillv wrong with the political system of this country. They have been watching the operation of party government, and they have seen it is extravagant, inefficient, undemocratic and positively immoral. With them to recognise a iruth is to proclaim it to the world. They have placed on the agJnd.l paper for (he annual conference of the Union to lie held in Wellington at tho end of this month a series of motions, conflicting in some respect, but all aiming at the substitution of good system for a bad one and all deserving the careful consideration of the community. One wants "an improvement in our Parliamentary system," another wishes ''to do away with party government," a third demands "the Elective Executive" and others insist upon "the best brains in the country being utilised in attaining national efficiency during this time of crisis," and presumably during all other times. Of the earnestness of those advocates of reform, who may or may not constitute a majority of the members of the Union, there can be no doubt. Their proposals must have the unmistakable ring of sincerity. But it ' ic not quite so clear that they have gone to the root of the trouble that is vexing their souls. They all dwell on ths "Parliamentary system" and the "party system," but not one of them as much as mentions the electoral system. TOE ELECTORAL SYSTEM. A moment's examination of the fasts, however, should convince tho reformers that before we can hope for any great inprovement upon'the present Parliamentary system or the prtsent party System we must effect a very radical change in tho electoral system. Willi the most democratic franchise in the world, with universal suffrage and one-elector-one-vote, we hitherto have failed to devise a system of election that would give us the full advantage of the great opportunities we enjoy. We hold 011 jealously and parochially to the shadow of popular representation and fear to grasp the substance. Here is space only for a fragment of the accumulated evidence that is rising up in judgment against us. Of the 515,907 votes recorded at the last general election only 214,555 were employed in returning the 70 European members to the House of Reps. Tiie rest of the votes were cast either for defeated candidates or for candidates that did not require them- In the twenty Wellington constituencies, dividing the Dominion into four great electoral districts, 0G,9'10 votes were polled for Liberal-Labor candidates and 04.C0(i for Reform candidates and yet the Liberal-Labor party secured only oix scats while the Reform party secured fourteen. A still more shocking miscarriage of our electoral ideas occurred in the twenty Canterbury constituencies. In these constituencies 78,914 votes were east for Liberal-Laibor candidates and 52,355 for Reform candidates, and yet while the Liberal-Labor Party secures sixteen seats the Reform Party secure only four. THE ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE. With an electoral system which gives such results as these it is futile to talk of reforming the Parliamentary system or abolishing the party system or even obtaining the best brains in the country for the Service of the State. Xo\- would the institution of an Elective Executive, which is so often urged as a "panacea for nil the evils of party Government, do away with party government itself. It has not done so in Switzerland, the country that is being held lip to us as an example and an inspiration in the winter of our political discontent. The constitution of the Swiss P.cpublie is the most picturesque and effective of the widely different ties that bind the peoples of the earth into nations; but it does not banish all the defects of human nature nor entirely bar tho way of the designing politician- It provides for two legislative chambers, as we have in this country, the National Council and the Council of State, and sitting in joint session these two bodies elect the Federal Cabinet'of seven and its chairman who js known as the President of the Confederation. What happens in this election in Switzerland is just what would happen in a similar election here. The members of the dominant party in the two branches of the Legislature meet in caucus and agree to concentrate their whole force on a single candidate for the presidency and seven candidates for the Federal Cabinet. The result is exactly the result we obtain here. THE WAY OUT.. The saving grace of the Swiss system of Government is not the elective executive nor the Referendum, as certain branches of the Farmers' Union seem to imagine, but the broad basis of its representation. A Cabinet elected by a party might be better than one selected I liy a party leader, but in nine cases out I o! ten its constitution would be practically the same. The Referendum, again, ;can be applied only' to big concrete I questions which admit of but one alter'native. It cannot express the views of the electors on each of the six hundred clauses in a. Local Government Bill or a Land Settlement Bill, But'a simple system of electing members of Parliament which would give every shade of public Opinion the exact proportion of reprc- : sentation to which it was entitled, would prevent the enormous waste of votes that is going on now, would greatly lesFen party asperities and would place aiany .of the best brains in the country at tiie disposal of the community.. There still, of course, would be a, majority rule, but there would be universal representation ami s uch injustices as were inflicted upon thousands of the electors throughout the Dominion in 1014 -would ; he impossible. These things cannot be . effected by the Elective Executive' or by the Referendum, but-they it!) could 1)e accomplished by a simple, v-'illible system - cf Proportional Hepre-e. latum and it is towards this end that 4 y the Farmers' Union and every other body concerned "for. the advajieem-ent of the DominioTi [ ' .and the welfare of its people should be ! tmhinj,' their energies in thia time bf stress and change.