WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14040, 24 April 1920, Page 1

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

(Special to the Oamaru Mail.) Silt JOSEPH "WARD.-' OBSERVATIONS IX AUSTRALIA. WELLINGTON, April 22. A sharp attack of sciatica, which kept him indoors for a fortnight, interfered with Sir Joseph Ward's enjoyment of liis trip to Australia,, but" he has returned to Wellington in excellent health and spirits and with very pleasant recollections of the kindness and hospitality showered upon Lady "Ward and himself by their Sydney friends, -©wing to his indisposition and his obligation to return to N'civ Zealand for the Prince of "Wales' visit-, he was unable to get across to Melbourne, but he met several of his Victorian friends.and was glad to hear from i hem of tlie prosperity their State was enjoying. Xew South Wales was in scarcely so happy a condition. The proiongixl drought, of which very little had been heard on this side'of.the Tasman Sea. was really a. very serious matter and had gravely affected all the rural industries. This, coming at a time when the State was confronted with all its war problems, was most unfortunate, but with its marvellous resources and its wonderful powers of recuperation. Xew South Wales never had occasion for despondency and was displaying none now. XEW SOUTH WALES ELECTION. Sir- Joseph described the political situation in Xew South Wales as interesting and perplexing—interesting to tho onlookers and perplexing to those involved in its complexities. The close balance of parties in the Parlia-. ment probably represented nenrly enough the divisions of opinion in the country, though it was, quite possible the abstination of an unusually large number of people from recording their votes ;it the recent election had affected one side more than it had affected the other. The. demand that the elector should indicate the whole of his preferences* on the -ballot paper, even when there were as many ;ts twenty candidates or more, in addition to leading hundreds of people to abstain from voting, had produced an enormous crop of informal votes. Thousands of people with strong party prejudices, and with little understanding of proportional representation, simply ret used to give (even a fifteenth or a twentieth preference to a candidate of whom they disapproved. The result was that they eitlier did not go to the polls at_all. or made a mess of their ballot papers when they got there. PARTIES AXD PROSPECTS. This. Sir Joseph hastened to point out. did not reveal any inherent defect in the principle--of proportional representation, it merely showed that die system had been .'unhappily applied, and that too great a demand had been made upon the intelligence of a section of the community. It would be quite sufficient to require the voter to express preference for the number of candidates to be elected, or at least for, three or four more. The chance of a tenth preference being effective, even when five candidates were to be elected, was so extremely remote there was no practical purpose to serve by demanding its expression. The multiplication of preferences, however, though it evidently had increased the number of informal votes and probably had delayed the counting, could not have impaired the accuracy of the returns. The new Parliament must be taken to represent the will of the electors who recorded valid votes. Sir Joseph's own impression was that the Labor Party was in the ascendancy in Xew South Wales, and that, with a growing sense of responsibility, it would modify many of its extreme views. Its leader, the new Premier, was a sane and capable man of ivlioin e.vervoue spoke well, and if he r-ould carry on he probably would gather strength with the development of his policy.

BACK TO XKAV ZE-ALAND. Sir .Joseph, rourtco'usly but quit;* tirmly. declined to be drawn on New Zen hind politics. He had gone to Aus'.ralin as a private citizen, jyid had re fused to discuss with the numerous journalists—manv of them, by the way. Xew\ Zealanders —who were good enough to call upon him. what had been happening in the Dominion during the previous three or four months. He had returned as a private citizen, and he was going to preserve the same attitude here. He could say. however, that his trip to Australia, like ali his other trips, had made him "realise thai New Zealand was a mucii blessed country, and a very excellent place to be able to call home. Governments would come and go. probably at shorter intervals than had been the case during the last two or. throe, decades, and some would be better than ethers. But no Government could wholly retard the progress of the country or long impede the purpose and the enterprise of its people. In a month or so he would be starting out on' a visit to the Old Country, where he had business, calling for his attention, and he might be awav till the end of the year, but aireadv he was contemplating the pleasure of his home-coming.