Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4000 DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1913. THE REFORM OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9587, 3 September 1913, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. CIRCULATION 4000 DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1913. THE REFORM OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

While we are in hearty accord with the wish of the Government to bring tho Upper Branch of tho Legislature into more direct touch with popular sentiment by substituting tho elective for the nominative principle under which its members have been "called" to the Chamber by the Government of tho dav, it :s by no moans certain that the plan proposed to l:e adopted i.s tho lK*.t that could be devised. The Hill, as introduced by the Hon. H. 1). Hell, provides tor an Elective Chamber of forty members, representing four constituencies of unequal size, and each returning an odd number of members, who aro to be elected under a system of proportional representation, with tho single transferable vote. The number of members to bo returned by the four electorates will be determined on the population basis, ro that equality of representation is provided for. But the electorates themselves must of necessity bo unwieldy. Roughly speaking, the two Islands will bo each divided, into a Northern and a Southern electorate. In tho North Island it is suggested that tho Southern constituency should include Taumaranui, and that tho Napier electorate, with Hawkc's Bay and the East Coast generally, should form part of the Northern electorate, of which Auckland would be naturally tho centre. Assuming that tho North Island returned 22 members', and tho South Island 18, we should probably have two electorates returning eleven members each an\l two others nine. The largo electorates are said to bo necessary for the proper working of the proportional representation system, but they powejs this obvious drawback, that nothing like community of interests would be ]x>Mible in electorates covering such, large areas of country. Tasmania has been cited as a Very fair example of the working of proportional representation, which has not boon without its beneficial results. Hut Tasmania, which i.s only about a fourth of the r,ize of New Zealand (its area being 26,215 square miles as against 103,261 square miles comprised in the North and South Islands and Stewart Island of this Dominion), has five electorates each returning (six members, and il. is proposed to increase the lunnUr of

electorates to six, and redure the iramber of representatives returned by each electorate to five, as it i« believed this will give even better results and more general (satisfaction to the electors. Parties are certainly better and more evenly represented in the Taamanian Parliament than they are in the Commonwealth Senate, where largo electorates are responsible for the representation. e;ich State forming a separate electorate and returning aix member*. The bigger the electorate® the more easy it becomes for one political party, and particularly a well-disciplined party, to capture the representation. a« the Labour Party has captured the representation in the Commonwenlth Senate, although the Liberal votes polled at the recent elections were ume thousand* in oxcw* of the Labour votes. It behoves New Zealand, therefore, to be careful how she cots up a system of representation that may hand the country over to the tender mercies of one particular party for many years to come. It ic, we are aw-ire. claimed by advocate* of the proportional representation system that it makes certain th" return of candidates in proportion to the 6trength of the parties they represent. but the large electorates are said to be indispensable to the successful working of that system, and to the accomplishment of such a result. Given large electorates there is, however, no reason why a well-organised party, such as the Labour Party is becoming, should not capture and retain a number of seate altogether beyond its legitimate number. When, for instance, in the early seventies, it was arranged to form three member constituencies in Great Britain in order to provide for the representation of minorities and the] electors were debarred from exercising more than two votes in fiuch constituencies. it happened again and again that the Liberals and the Conservatives alike w>re in their respective strong-! holda able, bv their effective organisation. to so direct the party votes as to secure all three seats. The electors were simply instructed how. and for whom, to vote beforehand. And the same thing would happen here in the largo electorates worked under the proportional system of representation with the single transferable vote. It only needs a system of combination and direction under a united party that will only recognise its chosen candidates. It is early yet to predict the fat" of theLegislative Council Bill now before th#> rpper Chamber, and so far there is nothing to indicate the course of action that is likely to be recommended by the Select Committee that has undertaken the task of remodelling the Bill. But there is this to be said on the subject. The principle of-election must- he maintained, and the House of Representatives having, by an unanimous vote last year, decided that members of tho I'pper House shall l>e elected on the proportional system the Government Ms necessarily bound by that decision. Instead ol the four largti and unwieldy electorates proposed, why not adopt eight or ten electorate*. each electorate returning, in the former enso five members and in the latter four? These electorate could be made ''coterminous with tho aggregate of a number of existing electorates for the House.*' as agreed upon bv members of the Peoples Chamber last year. But it would be better to increase the number of electorates for tho House ot Representative to eighty, independent of Maori members, and in this way tho l*pper House electorates could be more easily grouped together.