PARLIAMENTS & PARTIES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 127, 3 June 1929, Page 8

PARLIAMENTS & PARTIES

IN THE MAKING

AT HOME AND ABROAD

(Written by S. Saunders.)

Mr. Lloyd George's • complacent acceptance of a system of Parliamentary election which takes but scant account of equitable representation must ret many folk wondering what the Mother of Parliaments has been doing towards the political emancipation of the British public at large during the last six or seven centuries. "Whatever happens," the Liberal leader stated on the evo of tho recent General Etection at Home, "I do not think the Conservatives "/ill win more than 220 seats. I expect the Liberals will poll as many votes as the Conservatives, but I cannot say how many seats we will win. The Socialists may poll a greater number of votes than either the Conservatives or the Liberals, but I shall be disappointed if the Liberals ■ are not equal to the Conservatives in the aggregate." Obviously the distribution of the electors has at least as much to do with the result of an appeal to the constituencies in the Old Country as has the party leanings of the electors -concerned. Little attempt has been made, except perhaps in the big city boroughs, to bring about any. uniformity in the voting' strength of the constituencies, as is tho case in New Zealand, where the system is defaced by the introduction of a "rural quota," which gives in a rough and ready way an advantage of 28 per cent, to rural electors. In the big city boroughs in England, however, the number of voters on the roll at the election of 1924 varied from 25,000 to 50,000 or thereabouts, this, in effect, giving to one borough twice the representation given to another. In the provincial boroughs and counties, where the registrations were fewer, the • difference between this constituency and that were even more marked. In Wales the registrations varied from 25,000 to 54,000; in] Scotland from 25,000 to 52,000; and in Ireland from 54,000 to 102,000. The University elections, of which there were four, provided striking contrasts, comparable with the elections of Maori representatives in this country. Oxford recorded 8701 votes, Cambridge 11,836, Wales 1778, and the Scotch universities (four) 18,619, while at Belfast there was no contest. THE FIRST PARLIAMENT-. But in spite of its sins of omission and commission, we all are very proud of tho Mother of Parliaments as a national institution which probably has done more.to shapothe destiny of the world than has any similar influence within the range of written history. Just when the councils of the great landholders, secular and ecclesiastic, which had endured from the earliest Anglo-Saxon times, were converted into a Parliament was not made quite clear m the histories we scamped at school; but Matthew of Paris in his "Chronicle" applies the title to ths council of barons held in 1246. "At length, in December, 1264," a later chronicler relates, "when that extraordinary man, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester— a medieval Cromwell—held the weak King Henry 111. in his power, and was really the head of tho State, a Parliament was summoned, in which there should be two knights for each county, and two citizens for every borough, the inst clear acknowledgment of the Commons element in the State. This Parliament met on 20th January, 12G5. in the magnificent hall at Westminster, which still survives; so interesting a monument of many: of the most memorable events of English history '' The Constitutional Year Book, "a Treasury of Political Information," published by the National Union of Conservative and Unionists Associations, which I should like to commend to the Minister of Education as a very useful text book tor the higher classes in his secondary schools, epitomises the story of Matthew ot lans. "The increasing wealth of themercantile class," it says, "made it desirable that the towns should be brought into contact with the central authority Accordingly in 1265, Simon de Montfort in the King's name summoned a Parliament at Westminster and besides requiring the attendance of two knights from every shire, he ordered .he return of two citizens or burff S 1 e pfi-r°^ eaei l tOWn- The Parliament of 126 d, therefore, was the first distinct foundation of a system of popular representation." And so far as* the burgesses were concerned, it maybe regarded as the first imp6sition of the income tax, with which their successors have since become so familiar

OLD AND NEW. The Constitutional Tear Book simply teems with information concerning Home politics ana Home politician! »hioh is of absorbing interest just now when the clash of a great election' campaign, fraught with consequences of the very irst importance, seems still resounding. The Parliament which was dissolved only « month or so ago was tutol l I rty + f ourth. o£ X* series instituted by the union of the three kinedoms: in 1801. During the period, ff i^b years there were forty premierships Mr. Gladstone holding Zee l° Uj£ me4> f e Marquess of Salisbury and the Earl of Derby each three times, and Sir Bobert Peel, Viscount Palmerston, Earl of Beaconsfield, and Mr. Stanley Baldwin each twice. Earl Liverpool, a good Tory in the turbulent days between 1812 and 1827 held office for fourteen years and a month, and the nearest to his lordV*?i ™* u"in, te«uPted office were the Ea 1 of Oxford (Mr. Asquith) with eight years and 243 days, and the Marquess of Sahsbury with seven years and twelve days. Up to 1828 mg parties m Parliament were known a** Whigs and Tories, the appellations having descended from the previous century, but the Duke of Wellington who was in office from 1828 to 1850, a mutant Tory, bore the last of the old titles which were succeeded by Liberals W, Con^?^ es- The Conservatives became Unionists, under the Marquess of Salisbury, m 1886, when the Irish question dominated Parliament, but with this particular trouble out of the Wa^' °* a* any ra*e very materially modified, Mr. Stanley Baldwin in his second term of office led them back to their old title. The outcome of the recent election is undetermined at the time of writing, but the figures available make it plain enough that the balance swings between Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Bamsay Mac Donald, either of whom may be trusted in.time of need to uphold to the best of his ability the ingh traditions associated with the l'S?- C\r £-? i8 MaJ'esty's Chief Adviser Mr. Mac Donald held office from 22nd January to 4th November, 1924 by the grace of the Liberals led by Mr As qmth, and it is only fair to , say" the political heavens did not fall under his administration.

THE DOMINION'S HANDICAP. The New Zealand system of Parliamentary representation, though dofac cd by the "rural quota," is sounder than that of the Mother Country Every sixth' year the boundaries of the elec torates are revised by an independent Commission with a view to giving to each district, as nearly as may be? its fair share of representation in the Parliament of the country. This system which now has been in use for a number of years, has worked satisfactorily so far as it goes; but it is not proof against the vagaries of-a method of voting which is not precise in its operation. At the General Election of November last, for instance, while the Be-!

form Party with 267,079 of the votes polled secured only 26 seats, the United Party with 24,474 votes secured 30 seats. At the same time the Labour Party, which with 203,621 votes should have won 21" seats, secured only 19. A more glaring example of the miscarriage of voting strength occurred at the General Election of 1919 when the Eeformers with 206,461 votes secured 44 seats while tho Liberals with 196,337 vofea captured only 22 seats, arid the Labour Party with 127,042 votes only 8 seats. Of course, in measuring tho significance of these figures it has to be remembered that the Eeform Party, as is usually the ease with the party in office, put -mora candidates into the field than did either of the other two parties that counted. It may be argued, not irrationally, that the multitude of the Beform candidaes accounted for its larger number of votes. The Dominion, at any rate, has emerged from the stage when there might have been twice as manyelectors in one constituency as in another. It never has contemplated endowing its university with a representative in Parliament, and so far it has not demanded from candidates the payment of returning officers' fees. On. the whole, it may be repeated, New Zealand has a better system of election than has the Mother Country.