THE PRIME MINISTER’S SELFDENYING ORDINANCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16193, 20 March 1913, Page 6

THE PRIME MINISTER’S SELFDENYING ORDINANCE.

In his address to his constituents last night Mr G. W. Russell referred, perhaps not altogether unprofitably, to tho Primo Minister’s boast that his party has a majority both in Parliament and in tho country. That it has a majority in tho House of Representatives no one is likely to disputo. There are those “ hundreds of divisions” to prove tho fact and though tho hundreds havo dwindled down to scores their number is large enough to justify tho first part of Mr Massey’s boast. "Whether or not the constitution of the majority is one of which a loss self-complacent politician would be particularly proud is another question which we do not propose to discuss just now. A majority is a majority and there tho matter may bo left to stand for tho present. But the Prime Minister is drawing upon his extremely optimistio imagination—let us say—when he claims to hold office by the will of a majority of the electors. At tho general election of fifteen months ago thero were 182,565-votes, polled at the first ballots for Reform candidates, 199,141 for Liberal candidates and 97,'607 for Labour and Independent candidates. These figures aro taken from the official return laid on the table of tho House last session and now embodied in the Year Book. In tho case of tho Gisborne electorate, whore Sir James Carroll was returned unopposed, tho figures of the preceding election are taken, hut as these gave tho Liberals 3485 votes, tho Reformers 1454 and the Independents 2082 they aro not likely to do any injustice to the position the Reformers occupied in the constituency three years later. If a system of proportional representation had been in operation at the last general election—and Mr Massey himself has said that this is tho best system that has ever been devised, for the choioo of parliamentary representatives tho now House would have consisted of thirty-two Liberals, twenty-nine Reformers and fifteen Labour and Independent members. Tho North Island would have returned seventeen Liberals, seventeen Reformers and eight Independents, while the South Island would have returned fifteen Liberals, twelve Reformers and seven Independents. Of course this would have left tlio balanco of power in the hands of the Labour and Independent members and it is tho contemplation of his escape from that catastrophe which makes Mr Massey so reluctant to apply “tho best system that has over been devised for tho choice of parliamentary representatives ” to tho popular branch of tho Legislature. Mr Russell’s allusion to tho subject last night will enable tho members of tho ladies’ branch of the Reform League to understand why the Prime Minister was somewhat lacking in cordiality last week when their president suggested that he should not confine his “ self-denying ordinance ” to the Legislative Council.