A NEW SYSTEM

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 108, 2 November 1929, Page 11

A NEW SYSTEM

P.R, AT ELECTIONS

MR. J. M'COMBS'S. BILL

The House of Representatives read a first time to-day a Local Elections (Proportional Representation) Bill, introduced by Mr. J. A. M'Combs (Lab., Lyttclton). , .''.'.: Mr. M'Combs said he only'.-isked the House to permit the Bill to" be printed and circulated, in order that members might be acquainted with its contents. The particular form of proportional ,ropresentation involved in the" Bill was much simpler than what the Christchurch City Council was . operating \mder at present, and if it was eventually passed into law, it would mean that the next election in connection with the Christchurch City Council would take a much shorter time than the first-past-the-post system, whilo the cost would be less, and there would be less inIQrmal voting. The particular system proposed in the Bill was that approved of by the British Proportional Representation Association, and was in operation by the Scottish Proportional Representaho- Society, and in Ireland for the election of local bodies and of Parliament arid the Senate. During the last ten years enormous strides had been mado in the adoption of proportional representation, throughout the" world Two-thirds of the countries of Europe were operating under proportional representation, and the; most approved form was embodied in the Bill. One-eighth of the population of the -was now operating under proportional representation, sa \a Mr M Combs and members would realise the significance of that, because only a ™f \]*>, rt'on of the people of the world «ns under Parliamentary Government