WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 107, 8 May 1917, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

MUNICIPAL POLITICS

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(Special Correspondent).' WELLINGTON, May 5. Progressive people here who take a live interest in municipal politics profess to be highly gratified by the result of the Christehurch experiment with proportional representation. Of course, the great majority of them have no sympathy with the anti-con-scription plank in the official Labor candidates' platform.. : - That issue, they claim, was conclusively settled by Mr Holland's overwhelming victory over Mr McCombs in the contest for the Mayoralty. Mr McCombs had the advantage of being associated with every popular cry for ( municipal reform, while Mr Holland suffered under the disadvantage of being championed by rill the conservative elements in the community, and yet? the retiring Mayor was re-elected, by a majority of nearly seven thousand votes. That, the progressives. say, should silence the anti-conscrip-tionists in Christehurch till the end of the war, if not till the end of their days. EQUITABLE REPRESENTATION. But the result of the polling, the re-turn of nine "Citizen" candidates, five Labor and two Independents, gives such an accurate representation of the party composition of the conrtituency that it makes the very <?tropgest argument for the extension of electoral reform throughout .thy country. The , smoothness with s which the voting under the new system proceeded in Christehurch is astonishing everyone. Some of the wellmeaning people who set out to explain to the electors the principles of proportional I'epresentation and the operation- of the single transferable vote were not always conspicuously happy in their efforts,' now and again their demonstrations tending to lead I rather to confusion than to understanding, but the average intelli- j gence of the electors stood them:, in good stead, orid the mistakes the*y made, sp.'. marking their ballqt papers • app^ar^to have • been,/very v few indeed :,■ ''It. is-: not 'itvixsrb\>ablej: however, v thai a- considerable number of electors are ■still in doubt as to just what happened to their papers during that unconscionably long event. . v SIMPLIFICATION. Discussing this point a local adyooate rof proportional representafcipn jirgos the importance of ..reviewing" ;the system of transferring the surplus votes provided by the Legislative Council Act before this suspended'measure for making the ¥pperHouse elective is.-broiight into operation. This port of • the Act is modelled ;On the Tasmanianv system, in which refinement has been .added .to refinement in the, search for absolute accuracy till the various processes can be followed only by the trained mathematical mind. Had the system been employed in Ohristchurch at the recent election the "counting" would still be going on; The system employed was a much simpler^ one, but- there are many people with some practical, knowledge of the, subject who think even. this too slow and complicated. The Proportional Representation Bill circulated by the Hon. George, Fovvlds six years agofollowed closely on Mr Hare's original proposals, and probably in practice: it would have worked as well as any of the later measures. > EXTE3N.DLNG THE PMNOIPLE: Th the absence of Mr Massey and •Sir Joseph Ward there is not much information to be gathered concerning the Government's present, intentions in regard to electoral reform. 'Before-the party truee _Mr Massey was for trying proportional representation on th~e dog, as it were, by applying it to the Council before trying it in the House, while Sir Joseph Ward was for adopting it in both Chambers. But it may be doubted if either of the leaders was very enthusiastic about the reform in any direction or in any degree. Their colleagues if to-day are not giving much serious thought to the subject. The late DrMcNab was a consistent supporter of proportional representation; and in his■ Absolute .Majority: Bill applied ihe ; principle .of the reforiii as far as it cbuld be applied to single electorates, which, it is scarcely necessary to say, was not very far. The vest of the Ministers are well content to hold' their judgment in suspense. ' ,