PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

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

PREFERENTIAL VOTING.

It would be easier to give Mr Newlyn details of the systems of preferential voting in use in Australia than it would be to make the comparison between these systems and a proposal of his own for which he asked yesterday. Speaking generally they aim at ensuring the representation of majorities in single electorates by the transfersable vote., in the same way as Mr M'Nab's Absolute Majority Bill sought to secure the same result in New Zealand. Tasmania is the only State that has experimented with proportional representation, which is obtained by the use of tho transferable vote in a rather different way in larger constituencies. The essential difference between preferential voting and proportional representation, when they are separated, is that the former seeks to make the representation of majorities certain while the latter provides for the representation of both majorities and minorities. Mr Newlyn's proposal, if we recollect its provisions aright, merely aims at simplifying preferential voting by requiring the elector to cast votes of different value for all the candidates. If there were four candidates for a seat, for instance, he would have to give four votes to his first choice, three to his second, two to his third and one to his fourth. We take it that the use of all his votes would be compulsory, as otherwise the way would be open to " plumping," which might defeat all Mr Newlyn's good intentions. We confess we do not see what merit this proposal possesses over Mr M'Nab's scheme and it certainly is less attractive than Mr J. M'Combs's suggestion that each candidate should bo pitted against each other candidate in a system of preferential voting, and that tho one that- came through victorious should be elected. But perhaps some feature of Mr Newlyn's scheme which would put it in a better light has slipped our memory.