ELECTORAL REFORM.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1922, Page 4

ELECTORAL REFORM.

.Mr. Downic Stewart prefers to keep I his own objection? to proportional reI presentation to himself, but after hie visit to Australia he ha.; given us something of the mind of these who would reject it in New South Wale*. Leading j politicians in New South Wales have ! declared that it has not "a single redeeming feature. ,. This is delightfully ! sweeping, quite in the vein of the club Tory, although one of those who expressed thia opinion has been a Labour Minister. It is obviously a-bsurd to say that it has not a redeeming feature, since it must be admitted that it gives a fairer indc\ to tlic feeling of the country than docs the system of "first past the post.' . Lot us once apain rub in this contrast furnished by the English election of 1918: Coalition, seaU obtained 428. seats in proportion to votes 2(12;

non-Coalition, seats obtained 81, seatd in j proportion to votes 217. Will anybody pretend for a moment that this is satisfactory? The objections Mr. Dowiiic Stewart heard in Australi* wore that the system was very expensive, that the independent candidate had' no chance, that candidates belonging , to the same party tried to cut one another's throats, and that each of the three or five members for an electorate tried to take all the credit for "road and bridge work," which involved endless correspondence, and! opened the door to favouritism. None of] these are weighty arguments: indeed; I most might be described as feeble. That. there are weightier arguments against j the system, Mr. Downie Stewart no doubt knows well, and perhaps when the I subject is discussed in Parliament again, he will set them forth. We do not pretend that there is nothing to be s-aid on J the other side, and our purpose just now is to remark that Mr. Downie Stewart's statement touches only t he fringe of the. | subject, and to take this opportunity of keeping interest in the question alive. The Government would like to kill it, but, there are elements in the country I that are not going to allow it to forgetthat its power rests on a minority.