ELECTIONS IN TASMANIA

Evening Star, Issue 15293, 19 September 1913, Page 2

ELECTIONS IN TASMANIA

REGISTRAR MANSFIELD’S REPORT.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION -CONDEMNED.

TEDIOUS COUNTING AND BE WILDER ING DETAILS.

One of the documents submitted to tho Legislative Council Committee when considering the Council Reform Bill was an important report from the chief electoral officer, Mr F. W. Mansfield, upon lha working of the proportional representation system in Tasmania, whither he wont last January for the special purpose of studying it in action. Members of the Legislative Council have been allowed to peruse this interesting report, and it is with surprise they find that it is not favorable to the adoption of the Proportional Representation system proposed in the Council Elections Bill. —Tedious and Complicated.— Tasmania is divided into five electorates, each returning six members, and at the election in April" last year the Government (Liberal) secured 16 members and tho Labor party 14. As a deadlock ensued, a dissolution was followed by another election, with a result precisely the same as at tho previous election. Intheir official report on the election of the chief electoral officer of Tasmania, tho assistant returning officer and tho clerk in charge of the Electoral Department point out that the smallness of the Liberal majority in the House is mainly attributable to the fact that the districts each returned an even number of members instead of an odd number, and that, if tho latter arrangement had been followed the result would have been Liberal 20, Labor 15. —Fundamental Principle Favored.— Both from_ Press comment and conversations with persons well informed the New Zealand electoral officer found that a good deal of dissatisfaction existed over the system of election as at present constituted.

“I am under the impression,” he continued, “that some, while not wishing to see the fundamental principle of the Proportional Representation system interfered with, would welcome some modification of the present method by which the results of the poll are arrived at, while others would support a reversion to the single-member constituencies with preferential voting, to secure the return of a candidate by an absolute majority.” Mr Mansfield refers at length to the inability of most people to comprehend the workings of the system, even when they are concerned directly, a result not surprising. ho says, as tho process of counting is bewildering to most people. —Tasmanian Premier’s Suggestion.'— I had a conversation with the Hon, A. E. Solomon, the Premier,” continues the Chief Electoral Officer. “He was of opinion that single-member constituencies with the preferential vote would be found to give greater*satisfaction to us hero ,in New Zealand than the proportional system. Mr Solomon admitted that from the theoretical point of view the HareClarke system was perfect, but from* a politician’s point of view it was not perfect, because you cannot in actual practice divide a candidate up fractionally in tho way in which it is done on paper.” —Party List System.— Apparently the objections in Tasmania are not so much to the system of Proportional Representation as to the complex method by which the results of elections are arrived at owing to tho use of the transferable vote. The question of substituting tho party list system, is, says Mr Mansfield, engaging serious attention in Tasmania. This does away with the complicated and tedious method of ascertaining the result. “ If it is decided to retain single-member constituencies in New Zealand I think tho use of tho preferential vote where there arc more than two candidates would prove more satisfactory than tho Second Ballot. Regarding the application of tho Proportional Representation system to New Zealand, there would be no difficulty so far as the Parliamentary poll is concerned, but I. see very great difficulties in tho way of carrying out the poll under the proportional system, which requires different constituencies, simultaneously with the licensing and National Prohibition polls. The whole process would become very, complicated, and even if tho process could be made to work the risks of irregularities in connection with the conduct of the poll would become very great.”