ELECTORAL REFORM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 2075, 16 March 1922, Page 4

ELECTORAL REFORM.

The Kjfjn. George Fowlds, of Auckland, has for many years been an ardent advocate of electoral reform. It is not surprising, therefore, to find him again drawing public attention to the serious menace to representative Government inherent in our electoral system which fails to secure a representative Government. He pointed out to an interviewer at Christchurch that the present system gave a decided advantage to the Conservative Party in New Zealand at the last election, but in the recent election in Canada, the system operated disastrously for the Conservatives. If Mr Massey, who has frequently confessed his belief in proportional representation, fails to pass an Act next session in time to have a general election at the end of the year under the new system, Mr Fowlds thinks the electors would be justified in making the issue a test one at the elections. Both the Liberal and the Labour Party should lay aside their bickerings and vote-splitting, to secure an electoral system which would in future give both parties thenjust proportion of representation. That would go a long way to save democracy from the collapse which is inevitable if the present system is continued.