PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 166, 16 July 1920, Page 3

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

Wls IT A SUCCESS IN NEW

SOUTH WALKS?

Vigorous, but somewhat learned and involved, argument is going on concerning the question: "Did the system of proportional representation, under which the Now South Wales Parliament) was' elected, prc<ve a success?" The most ardent r.dvocat© of the system—Mr A. G. Huie, a, brother of a well-known New Zealand journalist—insists that, n\s far as it was permitted, the system was successful j while tho two. main opponent;-; ■.;«i' its further existence are, signifi-cantly-enough, I/lig Labor Party and tho National Party, each of whom control powerful political "machines." Some of Mr Rule's remarks are- of interest to Now Zealand. "T!he_Kingleeleotona.te plan made the machine the power it was for evil in tliis coun-

try," say si Mr Huie in a letter to the newspaper. "Thosg who work the machines know this; henc© their anxiety to regain a stranglehold on politics before it slips for ever from their grasp." Mr Huio combats tho argument that tho system did hoc produce a truly representative Parliament.. He says that tho three parties —Labor, National, and Progre«;i.v3 —are almost exactly represented according to the voting .strength of the people "That," he says, "is what the Nationalists and the Labor reactionarios object to. Just results do n;i ■appeal to< them. No doubt- the Nationalist Executive wanted what Mr MJn»ssey fluked in New Zealand at the lart. election—sß nor cent, of the members of 33 per cent, of the vote:-;. Such an i-lectoral outrage' would no ■doubt ha.vo appealed in them as jua'c th-u thing. The Labor reactionaries no doubt wanted whiit Mr Ryan got in Queensland G6-per cent. of the meobers on a vote of .53 per cent, of tho doctors. The klca. of electoral justice is abhorrent, to those who want to take the public; dc.lwn." Mr Huie gees on to say that the worst disadvantages of tho New South Wales system—the huge percentage of informal votes-—was due to the regulation making it compulsory to vote in numerical order for every candidate en the ballet paper, a regulation, devised by the State' Government and never contemplated or approved by the advocates of proportional representation. Under the true, system the elector votos for as few or as many cniidi-Jatos. as he desires. However, the La tor Government promise to nbolisli proport'onal repvesentjition.—Ofcago. Daily Times correspondent.