THE Kawhia Settler And RAGLAN ADVERTISER Friday, July 14, 1922 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume XXI, Issue 1122, 14 July 1922, Page 2

THE Kawhia Settler And RAGLAN ADVERTISER Friday, July 14, 1922 PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

THE approaching General Election, and the recent awowal of the Leader of tbe Opposition in Favour of the .system known a« Proportional Represent a t i o n, have brought into prominence an electoral method which has many advocates. Fortunately, the people of New Zealand have, of late years, had the opportunity of witnessing the system in actual and practical operation, both in a restricted area, as a means of selecting a municipal council, and in the wider sphere of the State elections of New South Wales. While, theoretically, the objective sought for —majority rule —appears tOg.be assured under this plan of sorting out candidates, in practice, it is so extremely doubtful whether the desired ends are being achieved, that even former advocates are losing faith in its efficiency. The unwieldy and cumbersome machinery involved, together with the delay attaching to continuous and complicated counts and recounts, are themselves serious objections to the adoption of any innovation, unless distinct benefits can be guaranteed. As a matter of fact, the practical application of the theory has not produced these anticipated results. On the other hand, it has indicated possibilities of political corruption, which are

bound to increase with familiarity, But apart from these internal intricacies, which space prevents us from discussing, a powerful factor militating against its introduction into the Dominion, is our sparsely populated condition and the destruction of the rural ratio. Already electorates are so extensive that it is difficult for a candidate to become conversant with his constituency, but to group three, or five together, as proposed, would form an aggregate area quite beyond his physical power to undertake a complete itinerary. Electors would therefore gather their views and personal impressions of each candidate from newspaper reports, either politically biassed, or if nominally independent, altogether unsatisfactory in influencing votes, as it were, by proxy. We believe that a more effective -method of attaining true representation, would be by a plan of classifying electors, rather than attempting a system which has no superlative merit, but has merely the effect of turning an elector into a voting machine, independent of his principles.