NATIONALIST POLICY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22675, 12 March 1937, Page 15

NATIONALIST POLICY

Sir, —The Leader of the Nationalist Party, Hon. A. Hamilton, is a little hard to understand. In Tuesday's Hkrald he is reported as saying at Whangarei, "Under the new constitution the people choose the candidates and write tho policy, and it will be the duty of members of Parliament to choose a leader." Subsequently the report reads, "Mr. Hamilton said his party supported the 'first past the post' system of election." And, further on, "Freedom of' individuality was an essential point in the new National Party's constitution." Now, if the people are to "choose tho candidates and write the policy," what right has Mr. Hamilton to lay down the electoral policy, "first past the post," at this stage? How does he know that the majority of the people whom ho expects to join his party believe in "first past tho post"? This is even more surprising, in view of his other published utterances, that the last election was a farce, and his quotations of figures, showing that a large number of members of the present Parliament were elected on a minority vote. Actually 36 out of 80 members do not represent a majority of their own constituents—23 Labour men and 13 of Mr. Hamilton's supporters. Moreover, Labour scored 47 per cent of the total valid votes polled, but secured 68 per cent of tho seats; the Nationalists, 35 per cent of tho votes and 26 per cent of tho seats; while Democrats, Country Party men and the various brands of Independents 18 per cent of tho votes, but only 6 per cent of the seats. A notorious case of the anomalies of tho present system of election is that of Tnvercargill, where the Labour candidate secured only 4241 votes out of a valid total of .14,439 —less than 32 per cent —but he "represents" his constituency just the same. So much for Mr. Hamilton's "first past the post," which he apparently intends to foist on to his party in advance. Is not electoral reform, preferably on the lines of the preferential voting system, as used for Federal elections in Australia, considerably overdue? J. H, Penniket. Hamilton*