THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Thursday, November 19, 1908. THE SECOND BALLOT.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12403, 19 November 1908, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Thursday, November 19, 1908. THE SECOND BALLOT.

Thb; ■ result of --Tuesday's polling 'throughout the- Dominion proves that the Premier, the originator of the second ballot idea, or rather the ■application of it in New Zealand, was very far. ■out •in. his estimate of the number^- .of '•• additional polls it would entail. • Instead of a dozen second ballots, at the outside, the forecast recently uttered bj' Sir Joseph Ward, the Chief Electoral Officer officially. announces - that on the present [- indications . there will be v nearer double that'number. Unless the returns from remote booths for which twenty two returning officers are now waiting, together with the exercise of absent voters' and •seamen's, privileges decide the issue, that number of second ballots will be required. In only one. or twe ■ cases can the returns not yet received be sufficiently large to affect the results, and the electorates in which tho people will be required to sip through all the trouble of voting again may safely be put down at ■ twenty at .least. One of the douot'ful cases is Nelson, Mr. Graham Mill wanting some eighty-three votes to decide ..his, election on one ballot. 'I bo matter should be set at rest this , morning, when the steamer despicih■ed to the Sounds to collect the ballot boxes is expected to return, but until the Returning Officer's official der'ara/tion is made it may.be be.-regarded as a; practical certainty that a second' ballot will be taken on Tues.ivy next. The position that has been created in a large number of elecr. >rates is unsatisfactory-in the extreme. Apart from the exasperation a fruitless ballot is bounjl to cause to hun.fl rods of, electors who cannot vote except under considerable inconvenience, and in many,, cases no doubt some Ipss also, 'finariteially '-as well as ;in: time, tbe working : of - the Second Ballot Aot cannot.react beneficially upon U-e -politics/of-the Dominion. /It is unquestionably a bad and- -a clangorous thing that a mattet of such ■ impoj tance as the election of members of -Parliament should extend o'.'Sr & . week at least, and remain hanging on' possibly half a dozenyotes during thit.rtime. .' If ever an enactment introduced ostensibly for ,the purpose of removing defects and abuses from . anf; electoral system was calculated to those ends,'; we should say that measure was the Second Ballot "^Act. It is very desirable that so far as it is =practicable to ensure it,'niembeirs should be returned by a majority -of the electors whose interests they are to. serve,'but^ there are other means of attaining that object ■than by such a clumsy and doubtful \expedient.as the second;ballot. The system of preferential v voting, ' for: instance, would have beenjmrne:isi<r. jably 'superior. In' yiew>of the fact that a' second balltp in ( -this i electorate is. all but inevitable, it may bo of advantage 'to -refer .-to"■>the principal provisions of'the. Act "under whWi it .will 436 conducted. .-The; cause of second poll arises,-; of course, in the" fact that the candidate: at the

head of the first fails to receive tin absolute majority of the votes cist thereat. The second ballot is to be taken as between the two hig'ies:> candidates at the first ballot, and notwithstanding any equality of voto3, between two candidates only. Herein lies one of .■ the most serbus and reprehensible features of the ■ e-iai't-ment, for it is provided that in the event of no' candidate seeing an actual majority, but two or mora receiving ah equality of votes, the Retrrhing Officer shall decide tha ojder of their precedence by giving sv.tli casting vote or votes as may be nee- , essary to such of- those candi 'atos as he thinks fit, and the canli.lutos at the second ballot are deter ntnoct accordingly. No candidate at the second ballot will have the rig'-ifc of withdrawing from the contest. The provisions of the principal \ct as to a recount of votes are not affeefcei by the new measure. Questn is hn vo been asked as to the provision made toy the new Act for the' payment of the expenses of candidates at se''ciH ballots. Each such candidate is ie<;uired to submit a statement cf l.is c^umses to the Minister of inte-nnl Affairs, through the Returning Offi'■■•r, and the expenses incurred l-y tl.e candidate shall, to the extooc determined by the Minister, but in no case exceeding £50, be paid out - of the Consolidated Fund. The Second Ballo.t Act is now. upon its trial in a sufficient number of places to afford the whole of New Zealand an opportunity of studying its working, and we have little doubt but that the result of the test will be the removal of the Act from the Statute Book before the next general election.