THE DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18996, 18 April 1925, Page 7

THE DAIRY CONTROL BOARD.

Sir, —Now that Mr. W. Grounds, tho chairman of the Dairy Board, hap endorsed the proposal for the adoption of tho " Ward System" for the election of the members of the board in plice of the present " Island System," as it may be called, the change in all probability Will bo made. The existing system is flagrantly undemocratic. What Parliament was about when it allowed such a system to creep into the Dairy Control Act I cannot imagine. One may be permitted to wonder, however, if it Would have accepted with equal complacency a proposal from the Minister for Agriculture to elect tho House of Representatives by a single constituency with each elector entitled to exercise seventy-six votes. In principlo such an arrangement as this would have been no more outrageous than was tho giving of six votes to each factory-Buppliar in the North Island, and thr<So to each supplier in the South Island at the election of tie members of the DaiJy Board. At the last Parliamentary election under such a system the Reformers, though polling approximately only 42 per cent, of the votes cast, would have secured the whole of the seats in the House, while the Liberals, Labourites, and Independents, with 68 per cent, of the votes, would not have returned a single representative. At ; the election of the members of the Dairy Board the issues were not confused by tho presence of four parties in the field, but everyone, with the exception of the most simple of the factory-suppliers, realised that tho pernicious system of voting handed over the constitution of the board, so far as the North Island wa3 concerned, to the big and well-organised battalions in , the Waikato district. Roughly there were 1 19,000 suppliers in the 'Auckland Province entitled to vote, 8000 in Taranaki, and 10,000 in Wellington and Hawke's Bay. Everyone acquainted with the facts saw that the contest was over before it was begun. The system of election permitted of no other result.. The out-and-out controlists had their' forces disciplined from ojio end of the island to the other; they chose their ticket wisely, and they carried it intact.' This was inevitable from the first, and there is no need to impute improper motives to those who worked this pretty little coup with the utmost skill and ingenuity. It is the duty of the Government, however, to see that this sort of thing does not happen again. Of the 37,000 odd suppliers in the North Island - only some 22.5 pifer cent, recorded their votes, and of the 1.9,000 odd in the South Island only some 19.5 per cent. That is not popular election. Mr. Grounds and 1 his friends say that a bigger poll wqijld have given them a larger majority. *1 am not in a position to refute their contention, and they are not in a position to prove it. But it really has no hearing on the point at issue. What is wanted is an equitable system of election, which will give every voter as nearly as possible the measure of representation to which he is entitled. Personally -I should prefer to go a good deal further in this direction than it is now proposed to go, but the " Ward System" at least will repair the more glaring defects of the system by which the present hoard was elected. Pais Rkpbbsesitaiiom. Wellington, April 15.