NO OTHER COURSE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8574, 10 November 1913, Page 6

NO OTHER COURSE

The Christchurch “Press” cannot see what other course was open to the Government than to repeal the Second Ballot Act and simply revert to the old system of “majority” voting. Of course not. The Government does not trust the people, and so its only course, in the interests of the Tory party, is to remove every opportunity that may be possible of allowing a clear expression of opinion through the ballot-box. The reasons for the Government’s proposal are plain. The Governmeunt does not trust the 'people, and the people do not trust the Government. It is easily understood that the situation is desperate. No party would proffer so backward and antiquated a proposal except in the case of dire extremity. What is hoped for is that at a general election the progressive forces may bo divided, and with a reversion to the old system Tory candidates may succeed. The trick is barefaced and palpable. It is not even clever. The party is smarting still from the effects of the - Grey by-election, where the ancient and discredited method would have permitted 2000 Tory votes to have triumphed over 4000 cast for democratic candidates. That is the kind of thing the Government wants to bring about and perpetuate. The “Press”, declares that “very few are agreed upon any other form of voting.” Wo can hardly imagine that our contemporary is so ill-informed as this statement would suggest, and can only conclude that it regards the task of deluding its readers as a very simple one. The fact is that very few people in any civilised country m the world are prepared to accept the system to which the New Zealand Tory Government desires to revert, and fewer still would have the audacity to describe it, as the ’'Press” does, as “majority voting.*'