THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1922. ELECTION ARITHMETIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18736, 14 December 1922, Page 6

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1922. ELECTION ARITHMETIC.

Some of the efforts that are being made by the weaker parties in the House of Representatives to that in reality they are the strongest in the country have at least the merit that they are entertaining. Immediately after the elections last week, Mr P. Fraser, deputy-leader of the Labour Party, drew some comparisons betw'een the voting strength of the various parties in the cities, where, necessarily, Labour is strongest. The value of his figures, which he used to enlighten a Sunday evening gathering of the faithful in Wellington, may be gathered from his analysis of the votes cast in Dunedin. According to Mr Fraser, the disposition of those votes was Labour, 16,000; Reform, 9000; Liberals, /4000. The total votes cast,' as ascertained by the first counts, were over 37,000, which is over 8000 more than Mr Fraser’s calculation takes into account. Lx this comparison Mr Fraser has taken those seats most favourable to Labour, doubtless for the purpose of making the position of Labour appear in the better light. When it is remembered, however, that Labour insists that the electors are in reality divided into two camps—Labour and anti-Labour—a comparison on that basis would be no more than fair on its part. , The provisional election figures on such a comparison leaves Labour in a minority of more than 3400 in the four constituencies in the city of Dunedin. That Mr Fraser’s figures are misleading is, therefore, very plain. Following his essay the Labour Party has officially issued another set of figures, compiled in this case from the returns of those constituencies in which party candidates stood. These are represented as showing that Labour obtained 319,045 votes, Reform 113,329, Wilford 49,414, and Independents 40,766 votes. For practical purposes this comparison is as useless and misleading as Mr Fraser’s effort is. Those electorates in which Labour was strongest are included in the calculation, and over thirty seats are wholly omitted from the reckoning. Even on the figures that are used, however, the totals show that while 139,000 electors voted for Labour 203,000 voted against Labour, so that there was a majority of over 54,000 against the Labour Party. Consequently the interested attempts to put the election figures in the light that will be most favourable to Labour discloses the fact that the country is far from having committed itself to a support of the Labour Party. In more than one electorate the party was undoubtedly fortunate in profiting by the splitting of votes, and six of the seventeen Labour members hold their seats on minority polls. The endeavour to discount the total Liberal vote springs, of course, from the Labour Party’s anxiety to gain recognition as the official Opposition, and it may be taken for granted that a determined effort will be made to gain this distinction. So far, the efforts in election arithmetic have not contributed much towards a solution of the political puzzle. It is utterly futile for the Labour Party to indulge in a transparent misuse of figures for the purpose of attempting to make it appear stronger in the country than it really is.