FRANCHISE BILL

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 June 1912, Page 6

FRANCHISE BILL

PRINCIPAL PROVISIONS

REDISTRIBUTION" ESSENTIAL [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.] LONDON; June 18. In the House of Commons the Franchise Bill was read for the first time. Right Hon. J. A. Pease, stated that the Bill provided for a qualification of six months’ continuous residence for all over Iwenty-oiie years of age. Removal from one electorate fo another would not interfere .vith the right to vote, but if a voter allows *is n-me to appear on two registers he will be fined £2OO, or one year’s imprisonment.

( The abolition of plural voting will reduce the number on the register by 525,000, and the abolition of university j representation by 49,614, but 2,500,000 j will be added owing to the continuous . residence clause. j If the franchise is extended to women on the same terms, it will add another | 10,500,000. j Mr. Pease admitted that the case for ; redistribution was unanswerable. ) Unionist papers approved of a simpler fmachise, but demand that it be | accompanied by redistribution which ■is a greater anomaly than the present ■ voting system. j The Times states that the Governj merit intends to proceed with the Bill , sufficiently to allow a woman’s suffrage amendment to be moved in committee.