THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1923. THE AUSTRALIAN SENATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18762, 16 January 1923, Page 4

THE OTOGO DAILY TIMES TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 1923. THE AUSTRALIAN SENATE.

Although it is now more than a month since, concurrently with the election of the Federal House of Representatives, the polling for the election of nineteen members of the Australian Senate—four for Queensland and three for each of the other States —was held the complete results are not yet definitely known. In those States where the counting has been finished the Labour candidates have done well, for they have secured all the seats in Victoria and South Australia and two of the seats in New South Wales'. The history of past Senate elections supplies examples of ,tho electoral power exercised by a small number of excess voters who are well organised. One example of this occurred in thn Senate elections in 1910, when one-half of, the Senate, to the number of eighteen members, was elected. The Labour votes numbered 2,021,090, while the non-Labour poll was 1,997,029. Notwithstanding the closeness of the voting the whole of the seats went to Labour,

though in Victoria tho three successful candidates polled less than a majority of the total votes registered. In New South Whiles a mere handful of excess votes gave nil tho representation to Labour. Later the pendulum swung against Labour, and in tho last Parliament there was only one Labour Senator until another was nominated by the Queensland Parliament to fill an extraordinary vacancy. At the recent election tho Labour Party won a majority of the contested seats, but will remain in the minority because sixteen of tho seventeen remaining members are Nationalists. The counting of the votes in the election in December was full of uncertainty and caused many surprises. At one stage of tho count in Now South Whiles, when the Nationalist candidate’s total was 251,683, the primary or first choice vote in his favour having been over 155,000, it was feared that a Labour candidate with a primary vote of only 13,000 would defeat him. “Anything may happen,” remarked tho Sydney Daily Telegraph at this stage of the count, “all the scats may go to the Nationalists of the Labour Party; two

may go to either, and the third to the other.” This forecast was made a fortnight after the election, so that the speculative interest, was at least maintained. The results of counting the votes show that Labour voters distributed their preferences with most careful accuracy. Being compelled to exercise seven preferences they voted their first three (and in the case of Queensland four) preferences for Labour candidates and then chose the least dangerous candidates for the exercise of their remaining compulsory preferences. It is quite impossible to go into details with respect to tho results. To detcr"mine tho result of the polling for each vacancy tho votes were recounted, and though candidates were excluded in determining the first and second vacancies they were again included for subsequent recounts, this entailing a process that wa.s lengthy and tedious. If voters

stuck consistently to their party tickets an excess of the smallest number of votes would have given all the representation to one party, and it was therefore only the small cross-voting that took place which gave the slightest degree of minority representation. If every elector who voted for the first successful Labour Senator in New South Wales had also voted his next succeeding preferences for the other Labour candidates all three would have been elected. In this contest, however, tho Labour candidate who received the second largest number of preferences was defeated and the third Labour candidate was elected with a larger final vote than was received by the first successful Labour candidate. It will be seen that a study of the sums in arithmetic which the various counts present is not devoid of interesting points, or even of problems. The elec-

toral system admits of manipulation by tho party “machines” and is used to tho utmost limits of its possibilities. The amendments recently made to the law, permitting the grouping of candidates, according to their respective parties, further aid the “machines.” The results thus ascertained arc not more satisfactory than has been recorded in the past. Informal votes in tho New South Wales contest numbered over 60,000 when the candidate occupying the highest position on the poll was ascertained. When the length of time that is consumed in the counting of tho votes is taken into consideration along with the perplexity which the system evidently causes to a large number of voters, it would seem that there still is room for improvement in tho method that is adopted for the election of tho Senate.

THE ROMANCE OF THE FOREST. Before the advent of man and the devastating firestick, New Zealand was a virgin forest of timbers of great value. In tho very interesting historical outline which Air L. Macintosh Ellis, Director of Forestry, presented to the congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science last week, both sides of the picture are presented —tho “ stage of civilisation dominated

by forests” and tho second stage of “ overcoming the forests.” This latter stage, which in the words of a chief conservator of the time, was characterised by “ enormous waste and robbery,” is now giving place to method and plan with the sure and certain promise of rich, and increasing harvest in the future. Emphasis has frequently been placed' on the destruction of a natural heritage of great value, in the process of which both forest and land have been temporarily clestroyed, tho land being useless for any purpose other than a forest crop. The utility of a backward glance consists in tho lesson which it teaches with respect to tho future. Land

which is best fitted to produce timber should not be diverted to less productive purposes, and tho greatest care must now be exercised in protecting existing forests. Mr Macintosh Ellis puis tho problem plainly in these words:—• A national forest of 10,000,000 acres must be converted into a timber-crop producing machine if the legitimate and leasonable needs of New Zealand 3 citizenry are to bo secured from within the dominion. The desert wildernesses must be gradually reclaimed to human use by rc-stocking with timber farms. Tho vast uplands and mountainous protection forests from which debouch tho dominion’s essential water supplies must be rigidly perpetuated and saved from destruction by fire. Means must be found to use the £*,000,000 tons of wood garbage and waste that is created annually.

The limitless possibilities of forestry in the dominion are only discernible to those gifted with long vision, and the most perfect forestry policy may consequently fail to touch the public imagination. Nevertheless, the activities of the late Sir David Hutchins and others have

left their impress, and the present State Forest Service is charged with potential results of great value. The dominion will shortly begin to reap profit from its earlier essays in State forestry, and this may have the effect of stimulating public interest in the operations

of the department. Mr Ellis points with satisfaction to the progress which is being made, and reviews in sympathetic vein some of the successful ventures of local bodies. Altogether the outlook for progress in practical and profitable forestry is much more hopeful than it formerly was. “Forestry is just in its childhood,” remarks Mr Ellis. “Will it,” he asks, “weather the storm and the period of childish diseases?” His own answer is: “I believe it will.”