The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1938. MAJORITY AND MINORITY

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 128, 2 June 1938, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1938. MAJORITY AND MINORITY

for tfce cause that tacks assistant}*, For the irrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we amn do.

Jn nusvvcring the criticism tlint tlie Labour Government did not, at the last election, gain ;t majority of the total votes enst, the Hon. I*. Frjisor runinrkctl that tin , snnie wns true of. the Government."! which preceded it. That is an answer, bin not a complete answer. No Government before this one attempted to make structural alterations in the economy of the country. Lμhour, us Mr. Fraser asserted, had the snine right to carry on the national nr'ministrntion with a minority vote ;is other Governments did. As the party which hail polled more votes than any other, its right, under the existing electoral system, was unchallengeable. But it has done a ure.it deal more than carry on the administration of! the system as it found it. Jt ■is changing the system—that, indeed, is its proudest claim — and it promises and intends to make other changes, all in the direction of socialisation. If its biy Parliamentary majority had ever accurately reflected the opinion of the electors as a whole it would have had strong justification for its actions in the last two years and a half. But instead of keeping in mind its popular minority of 50,000, it has tended more and more to think and act in terms of its obedient majority in the House of Representatives.

The cxfci'nt to which the "first past the post" system results in minority representation is not generally realised. In the present Parliament, because of the intrusion of the Democrat Party in the election, it is particularly marked, and on both sides of the House. Only in 15 constituencies out of SO were there ''straightout" contests; in 33 there were three candidates, and in 30 there were more than three. Even those candidates who gained the biggest majorities cannot claim to represent more than two-thirds of the people in their electorates. Only about twenty of the Labour party won the support of even 50 per cent of the electors enrolled in their constituencies. The member for Invercargill sits in Parliament with the knowledge that less than three-tenths of the enrolled electors voted for him. Such figures as these give a slender appearance to claims that the Government has a "mandate" to bring about socialisation. But their lesson for th# approaching elections is clear. First, a more determined effort than ever before must be made to persuade people to exercise their voting rights. Secondly, as the present electoral system does not "work" at all satisfactorily when there are more than two candidates in each electorate, no encouragement whatever should be given to third candidates. There will be at the election one clear-cut issue, and it should be made possible for the electors to give a clear-cut decision.