TASMANIA'S ELECTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15920, 4 May 1912, Page 10

TASMANIA'S ELECTION.

The result of the Tasraanian election is still uncertain, but the preliminary returns indicate that the Ministerialists have secured seventeen seats and the Labour candidates thirteen. These figures give a Labour gain of one seat, and leave the Liberal Government with a majority of four in the Chamber of thirty members. The Labour Party ought to be fairly well satisfied with its position. It has never been very strong in Tasmania, which has a large proportion of people working on the land, and"probably it suffered to some extent from the mistakes that have been made by the kindred bodies in Queensland and South Australia. In any case the election has supplied an effective answer to the suggestion that tho worker is placed at a disadvantage under the operation of a proportional representation system. Each of the five electorates in Tasmania returns six members, and Labour had nominated a complete "ticket" in two instances only, while no fewer than fourteen of its candidates had not sat in a previous Parliament. The. winning of thirteen seats under these conditions is a proof that the Labour candidates were able to make their voices heard over the big electorates. No doubt the final figures will show that the rival parties have secured just the representation that their voting strength entitled them to receive, as was tho case in 1909. Tasmania is supplying a good illustration of the practicability as well as of the essential justice of proportional representation.