MAJORITY REPRESENTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12983, 26 November 1902, Page 6

MAJORITY REPRESENTATION.

It is too much, perhaps, to expect th® public, ‘on the very moanuig fallowing the election,, to devote much serious atfentaon to tho reform of tho system under which they rttcorded! their votes. They have thad! a surfeit of politics during the past mouth or two, and will ba glad to turn for a. season. |k> lass distracting subjects. But no'w is ifeally tflre iima when they should lay the lessons of yesterday’s contest to beaut. One. of the most dtriking of theso is the utter failure of t'ha present 'systlsffla to secure With any degree of oert'ainty the represenltation. of majoritieis. The representation of majorities, and of majorities alone, an'uy n'tft be llh'a highest ideal o!f the political student, but it is what we profess to ba seeking, and Whale.thih is the daee wo ought to ®eie that we get ft. If wo want proportional representation there is a simple means at our hand by whitoh it could be obtained. But that is ah-other story. It is only necessary to look alt the

results to publish, this morning to realise the flagrant defect of the. pretetemib system. In’ Canterbury alone there ore six doctorates in which the .successful candidates can never know that, they reprelsent a majority of their constituents. Thei three members for Otaistehurcb are all “ minority rcipre&o.-n'taitivc.s,” that is, not 011.0 of them obtained an actual majority of the votes polled, and Mr Rutherford, Mr Hardy, Mr M’Lachlan, Mr Lewis andl Mr Tanner are in the same position. It does not follow tint none of these gentlemen would have been elected under a more rational system of voting. Indeed, it is pretty certain that both Mr Rutherford and Mr M'Lachlan" would have done better if tho means of dividing the Liberal vote had been removed. But as it is they are in tho same boat as the Conservative members. The remedy for this state of affairs is so obvious that the new Parliament ought not to hesitate for a minute in • embodying it in our electoral (fair. Mr M'Nab’s Absolute Majority Bill, which has now been before the public for four or fiv® years, would positively ensure the representation of majorities, and would be so sample in its operation that no on© would! have the least excus'e for musamdersttodui,g its provisions. If it -had bean, placed on the Statute Book by the last Parli’aaniEnit every elector would to-day have the Satisfaction of knowing that, whatever tho result of the particular contest in which ho was engaged, he had made thiei most effective use of his vote, and every effected member of the House would be saved from the reproach of being a “ minority representative.” We have never heard' of one sound objection to tho measure, it being entirely free from the. defects urged against tho Second Ballot Bill, and we trust that immediately on the meeting of Parliament next year the Govern nunt w® announce its intention to take np Mr M'Niib's proposal.