THE POLITICAL FUTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 170, 18 July 1919, Page 7

THE POLITICAL FUTURE.

CONFLICTING OPINIONS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, July 14. s The "Dominion" returns this morning to its lament over the party strife which threatens to deprive the country of "the 3 more responsible elements in Parliament" and hand it over to the exponent* of "the revolutionary and anarchial doc--0 trines" that are abhorrent to every "- broad-minded loyal-hearted member of '. the community. ""What is to follow ou f the dissolution of the National Governs ment should that occur, as it is expected '; to, in the comparatively near future, is s, largely a matter of conjecture," it says, 0 "but 'it is certain that politicians arc g Jagging far behind the march of public d otnnioii in the matter of obliterating s, pre-war party lines, in so far as they 0 were arbitrary and artificial, and adopt- -- ing more rational methods." The polio, ticians alone, it 6eems, are responsible for this state of afTairs. The average thoughtful elector, this authority declares, certainly regards with disgust the idea of reconstructing parties on the lines that existed before the war. LABOUR'S VIEWS. A member of the Labour party, not one of the revolutionary and anarchial spirits of the organisation, when interviewed to-day about these matters, said nothing would please the electors with whom he was associated better than to see the political parties in tiie country id reduced to two. Sooner or later thic v- would conic about. The extreme Con,g scrvatives might stand aloof from cither s- party at one end, and the extreme Revole lutio'nirics at the other, but there would nt Ibe no need to take either of these frag;h nients into account. Their number? te(would be few, and they would do little u ,jto influence the course of elections. 11 X- was ridiculous to say that no difference x _ of consequence remained between sane ip ' loyal people. A number of eminently 41 |6ane loyal people recently gathered toand framed a political platform 0 j in which the reversion to quinquennia u1 Parliaments was one of the principa t™ planks. That surely proved conclusive!} A enough that sanity and loyalty were ' , not the last words in political contro ; n jversy. or PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION v " Local advocates of proportional repre n; sontation, whose activities, like those o • n " other political people, were suspendei ra during the war, declare that both M: ' n > yon Haast and the "Dominion" have c '" done loss than justice to their pet re [M form. It is absurd, they say, when Si; 'P'| Joseph Ward has accepted it as par on [of his policy and Mr Massey has ad he Imitted it to be the best system of eloc ye tion, to write as Mr yon Haast does o 4) j public opinion not being "adequatel; c; converted" to proportional representa he tion. Public opinion, they claim, fo lie years has been ready for the change >p- and but for the timidity of the politi cians would have adopted it long age As for Mr yon Haast's system of alterna tive voting, it is only a delusion an, a snare, possessing most of the defect of the "first past the post" system, an, one or two others beside. Its purpose i to deprive minorities, however large, o nil possibility of representation, whit their system, as its name implies, et sures the equitable representation o both minorities and majorities.