PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20831, 15 April 1933, Page 3

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

TO THE. EDITOR OP THE PBBS.i. Sir,—l wish to thank you for publishing my letter on the above subject, and also Mr J. McCombs for his courteous reply. As an "Interested correspondent I can assure you that have, from Mr McCombs's explanation, received my full share of interest, and with your further indulgence, would like to sum up the positl°Mr McCombs states that "the proportional representation system wnicn operates in Christchurch does not iecognise parties. How can this be so when the very name 'proportional representation' really means proportion of parties to represent the electors. II we. in our system, do not recognise parties, what really does the system count for in our election? Such a statement also does not bear out what we actually experience. At the present moment the Labour party, Citizens' party, Independents, and Socialist parly are electioneering on party lines and instructing their followers to vote party "tickets," and when the chosen few are elected they will gather at the council table arranged on party lines and the committees will be elected on party lines, etc., and yet our system does not recognise "parties." If Mr McCombs' explanation is to be accepted, then there should be no party speeches beforehand, and the candidates should go to the poll as citizens of Christchurch with no party attached to their names, and when elected they are simply councillors to cai-ry on the business of the council as a body not under party principles. Mr McCombs might say that the voting papers do not intimate to what party a candidate belongs, but the electors are provided with party leaflets, and electioneering speeches emphasise the necessity of followers voting the party ticket, and I think Mr McCombs will agree this is not the spirit of the system of proportional representation which he says does not recognise parties. But after all, the system perhaps has an advantage to same particular party; for instance, where the followers of a certain party vote purely on a ticket and the followers of another party are so lackadaisical that they will vote for two or more tickets, then the first party has a decided advantage in obtaining the majority " for the election. If electors voted solidly for party tickets and did not cross vote, then we might obtain, to a certain extent, what proportional representation stands for, but seeing the system does not recognise parties. I may be wrong in suggesting such a procedure to the electors. How splendid it would be if Mr McCombs's explanation was correct and we could obtain a council without party feelings. We would then have councillors to carry on the business of the city on business lines, which really is. after all, so very necessary.—Yours, etc INTERESTED. April 13, 1933.