PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15919, 3 May 1912, Page 6

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

The cablegram from Hobart stating that the returns of the parliamentary election held on Tuesday aro being delayed in consequence of the Hare system of voting having been employed is likely to give the uninitiated a wrong impression of the operations that ore required to secure proportional representation. Of course the delay has not arisen out of any difficulty that confronted the electors. Their task was finished when they placed numbers opposite the names of the candidates on the ballot-paper to indicate the order of their preference and this occupied no more time than the ordinary method of voting would have done. The work of the return-iug-officer was a little more onerous,. He had to ascertain the number of first preferences given to each candidate by counting tho ballot-papers, just as they are counted under our present system. This gave him the total number of votes recorded as well as tho number of first preferences given to each candidate and he had to divide this total by a number exceeding by one the number of members to be returned to determine the quota. Candidates receiving the quota or a greater number of votes were declared elected and their surplus votes wore distributed among the other candidates according to tho second preferences shown on the ballot-papers. Then the ballot-papers of tho candidate lowest on tho poll were taken and their first preferences being disregarded their second preferences were awarded to tho candidates indicated by the electors. This process was continued until the six members allotted to each constituency obtained tho quota and were elected. The counting and the transference of votes were governed by the strictest regulations, all designed to ensuro an absolutely fair representation of the political thought of the constituency. The machinery may seem a little complicated at first sight, but it is so simple and precise in its details that it cannot fail to 'give the desired result the reproduction of the opinions of the electors in Parliament in their true proportions. Naturally the transference of votos from one candidate to another takes a little more time than allowing them to bo wasted would; but wo cannot help thinking that much of the delay that has occurred in Tasmania has been due to the very leisurely methods that are adopted by the officials of the Island State. At the last general election in Belgium, where proportional representation is associated with the "list" system and plural voting, the counting was completed four hours after the closing ■ of the polls and the final scrutiny was easily completed on the following day. But even if our re-turning-officers wore no more expeditious than those of Tasmania the advantages of a sane system of representation would so enormously outweigh the inconvenience occasioned by a little delay that the country could well afford to wait a day or two for the complete returns.