THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 1910. THE COMING FIGHT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10063, 8 June 1910, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8, 1910. THE COMING FIGHT.

1 Lord Rosebery sought recently to improve the shining hour by suggesting that King Edward left a double legacy of peace, operativefboth -internationally and in British politics. Evidently he meant that the Liberals and Tories should cease their struggle over the question of the Lords. By doing so, however, it is pointed out that they would not bring about peace but perpetuate war. For so long as the relative powers of the Houses remain as they are now, so long will there be conflict. The path of peacei | therefore, is taken by those who press for an [immediate trial of the issue, which can only be reached through prompt submission of the retorm proposals to the Lords and probably still another general election ensuing upon their rejection of the scheme. At such an election the people would dispose of the cause of quarrel permanently if they returned the Liberals with a majority,

or would remove it from the sphere 1 of immediately practical politics if they pat the Tories in office; either way there would be peace. Of course, it would be quite another question if the House of Lords was disposed to ' sink its claim to overrule and thwart the nation's elected representatives whenever they happened to be Liberals, but, as there is no suggestion of that, the inference is that the Liberals are expected to continue to subj missively put their political necks j under the peers' feet. That aoandonment of principle and vital necessity 18 unthinkable. In this connection, therefore, it is interesting, to recall the remarkable fact that at I the recent election the Dnionists ohtainad 174,555 more votes than the Liberals tpxoperls sc-caJled)„, bui 23.

fewer seats. They actually should have obtained 16 more than the Liberals. This fact is of particular interest in view ot the keen fight towards the close of the e'ection for the honour of bsiog the largest single

party. If, to a majority of 16 seats in Great Britain, there were added the majority which a proportional system on the present basis of representation would have yielded to the Irish Unionists, the Unionists in the House of Commons would I have outnumbered the Liberals by J more than 40. The net result of the election—a majority of 124 for the 1 Ministerialists {inclusive of the Inde-

J pendent Nationalists)—is, however, much more nearly in argument with the votes polled than has been the case in any previous election since 1892. The truth is, that thare is no necessary relation between the size of a majority in votes and that in seats, and such approximation to ac curacy as the result [of the election has shown is due to the partial counterbalancing of anomalies arising 1 from the supremacy of the opposing j parties over large areas —anomalies I that may bring serious evils in their ] train. Some much more radical i change te required—a reform that

I would bring the House oi Commons | into closer anu more stable relations with public opinion. Such a reform is to be found In proportional representation. It not only ensures the representation of parties in proportion to their numbers, but, by giving electors greater freedom of choice in the j selection of representatives, enables I them to make a much more intelligent and discriminating use of the franchise. It would render the party system less rigid and less exclusive, and would restore to the House of Commons that full measure of authority which belongs to a House that is fuily "tepMsentative.