INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23010, 11 April 1938, Page 14

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

Sir, —I am inclined to think, and I sincerely hope, that in his attack oil the party system your correspondent, the Hev. A. John Greenwood, represents an increasing body of opinion. To my mind, the popular identification of democracy with that essentially undemocratic system has been a disaster of the first magnitude modem world, and is the main can si? of the disrepute into which democracy • has fallen and the supersession of so ihanv nominally democratic Governments by avowed dictatorships. I am afraid, however. that as long as our present system of election remains iinreformed, the remedy advocated by Mr. Greenwood, the putting forward of independent candidates at elections, will prove wholly inadequate. Even when these candidates have enough strength of' character to resist the pressure that is sure to be brought to bear on them to, induce them to withdraw, their chances of election''are, for the most . part, small. Those who most dislike the party system probably as a rule dislike one party more than tbe other; and they may well hesitate to vote for an independent candidate when the practical effect of their doing so is likely to increase the probability of the election of the'candidate whom they most wish to see defeated. It has often happened, moreover, that men whoi-hare succeeded in winning an election as independents, and whose sincerity thera no reason to doubt, have found themselves in a position of such powerlessness to accomplish anything that thev have abandoned their independence and joined the party for which tliey felt the most affinity—or the least repulsion. The only real remedy for the evils of the party system is its substitution of Government by ail weetire executive on the Swiss model (as recommended, incidentally, by a Committee of the House of Representatives over 40 years ago), -with proportional representation. Until there arises a public demand for this reform strong enough to overcome the resistance of the rested interests of the party machines, of which I confess I see no immediate prospect, we shall hare to continue to put up with th 9 mugovernment, endurance of whicli seem* to hare become such second nature with many people, otherwisei intelligent and public-spirited, that they art!not even conscious of it. M.- Alms.