THE HARE SYSTEM OF ELECTION,

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6948, 23 February 1884, Page 5

THE HARE SYSTEM OF ELECTION,

AN. INTERESTING EXPERIMENT. [.BY CORRESPONDENT. J Wellington., Friday. I have been, able to obtain a.copy.of! a yery interesting report, of which I append, an. abstract. You will remember that it has ■ long been a favourite idea of SirF.. Whitaker's; to introduce the Hare system, of! .election;, and, aa his wishes, on this head; were. '.given, effect to iso far as to provide in: the Legislative Council Reform Bill, introduced . last session,.that the Council elections -should be ; pondiicted. under that syternj it. was ;3eeme.d.-.adv.isab'ie to test, by direct.experiment; the practical working of; Accordingly, some little.time back .merits were made for ;a trial ipf; the.plani/ ,by conducting ail imaginary election .in. : accordance with the rules suggested by Harey and set forth: in his 1 b<k>K. The plan ; adopted was. as .follows,:: —A. circular,- isras- ! issued to all the members of the :Ciyil.S,eic-.', vice in Wellington, irequestihg each to select from'the names.-of forty celebrated British authors transmitted therewith the. names of his ten favourites; writing, them down in. his Order,of preference, selecting as many as ten. if:possible.,, in no case: more. The voters '\jv.ere',ep.eoially .cautioned; to : ;write the: .names' in the order of their "persohdl preference,- and ;not alpkabeticaily Ithia ehpulji .cbincide, ; with .siich. ipreferehce.;. The voting, cards ;when; filled .up were to .be? forwarded to.the; Registrar-General',^; whose"■"aWe.'.'.'aotuary,'^Stri'. 1 F; W. Prankland, was ■to : ascertain from r-.Baoh data, the results of the election: so conf ducted. Sir. Franklarid has made a very full and exhaustive report on the results. He states that he issued in all, 5.13 voting: tioketw. ■ Of' these' riot, one was returned in a completely informal shape, although a few (under half-ft-dozsri) were.practically-so. AH . the' , votes were consequently .unutilised. The : vast , majority gave the.te.n.vdtes.ailb.wed them; ■ten. gave only 9 votes, four gave 8 votes, tvvo gave 7 'Ptes, two gave 6 votes, three gave p votes, three gave. 4, and one voted only:for. ''.pianyinj' , thus, only 25 cards contained fewer tfean the maximum number of'*.otes.. With-'the exception of two- no fiair«:in.the: '-.voting , , .papers were 'exactly -alike. This .-is .what'the law of probability 'showed inight be ■expected, the chance of an accidental floincideticß.. .being only about "one in fpt'ty/ thousand miliions." Mr. that the two pairs of identical: voting papers might therefore be attributed with certainty to mutual consultation, even ihad not the identical cards come from the same de- ; partment; -Another. , ' marked -feature was that ■ jn spite -of tho warning to the i.'gotiirary a great tendenoy/ was .observed . tojvard the '.alphabetical!order pi arrangeirient;instead of according, to preference. It ia expected that this would be the case in: a regular election whioh would be .materially Effected by such a' practice as the.- order; of ;preference largely tends to: the,iresult!: .on tho -whcile. One-card contained; pimply ■ittie" n»mes:of tlie'teri .authors firstrhamed : 6n.' I'the.'liet .of.' ''candidates," and: in alphabetical order: The, result of the ydtibg,: \takiug thei ■ actual numbers given in : the ordinary way, -was.that theyotes.recorded were.respeptiy.ely-as'-'-fp'llpwa :-iShakepear, 427 ; 'Dickens, '^26;; rScptti 346; Byron, ',321;;- Maeauiay t - .265. ; : Thackeray, : .265 T ; Lbngfellqw,-: 245 ; --{Lyttoai . ■.235',i :Milton,;2p: : ; 212, The'rest 1 ;.rariged from! Burns, 184;, down.' to Swinburne ■4i A ''striking, feature was- that while , Shakspear had 17-it and Piokeris : 78:'" *f rß^' ■ VptesV" no fewer than T "■candidatesl'ihad.no.: -first!yptes;.at:alli :No. author had: more .than!, :3i-''tenth yotpe",; 8 more, were jjrithpnt"'"tenth vote." 'Mr! Frankland proceeds to analyse at considerable ; length; the, character: of -the voting, and to.-formulate , ' various s",tanons" by which an"accurate ;expbsitiori. of the popular' will might: be deduced/ and the.-representation; of minorities secured. -The., reeiilt on a. mere-proportion of y the gross.' /number.; of ./votes' are given above. This. db«s .not-represeht 'minorities. The. second.plan is. to. take only the : first voias, recorded, vand to .decide .the..election; by the"results.''-'--By.-this; device, the. -. following return was 5 -pb- : '.tained:':WS.hakßpear, 174 ;: : Dickens, :78 ;. •Byron, 33; Macaulay,■■ 2S; Scott,;.,;23 J .Burns;; 19.; MUtpn; i.B.'• Bunyan- .'Kingsley,' : and Thackeray,., each 15...:-Qf'.these.'Burns,. ; Bunyan; and: .Kingsley Syouid ."represent, /minorities. Mr. Frankland remarks li~" By ;i the system of gross majorities they would be :excluded :in- ■•{ aypur , ,'.of lipngfellbw, - Lyttbii| rani' Tennyson,; authors whoi.appeal to wider' .sympathies, although/one of : them , (Bunyan) bad'abkually.'. fewer; than ;;half /the. total, {number of- voties-;,- (212) polled■". byy the, .lowest:, .candidate' who -was ■. successful : :under. the .grpss; majdrityT'systefh.''. /.He /adds-that Burns 1 may7be. /taken-..t0. repre'-' sent anationality, and!Bunyan and Kingsley /'schools' of .thought.-..-■!.: One -.would;. commend " himself to the/ majority of the class .of 'voters.*' In theseinetatces, LoDgfellpw, Lytton, V arid Tennysph: might. VMr;: Frankland : thinks that this/plan; of:;.justioe::,.the.representation of and poßßeßsirig the merit! of extreme simplicity; ia open to the objection of being waste-" 'fill - of./, yptes, ::andpf offering an enormous premium oriparty/'organisatipn; by whioh two extra seats could be secured through taking advantage of /this plan/ and.. getting :as /many ;aa!;.possible , ,. VfiretJ votes , ' recorded.' tT_ i h'e , i 'hex't'..mein , b^ , -.is l oip3ely:';similar to : that' ;whiclv|:/:Hiare;,"himself; /has //'finally approved, ' namely,-.!bjr , determining a:-'',quota" snfficient : , for.ire i tiirn',^iuid> , ;.th'en ,, atilising the surplus or is explained fully in Hare's,-book, i'and Mr. .Frankland devotes 17 pa&ea'totheelucidation of ite working..-,. The final outcome is that by this plan the election results Dickens, Byron, Scott,/Macaulay, Milton, Thaokeray, Barns, Longfellow,' Carlyle. Such; is the general purport of this , very interesting report, which 'constitutes perhaps the best and clearest illustration; of Hare's system yet' given, and shows with great plainness how this soheme might fairly be expected to work in practice ;at;actual'elections.3''*;;■'■/■;".!'V!r : ;!;;''!' ;. '-. : ''''■!"'■