THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1914. "FIRST PAST THE POST."

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13634, 24 November 1914, Page 4

THE COLONIST. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1914. "FIRST PAST THE POST."

In the course of his address at Temuka last week the Prime Minister referred to on<e of the broken pledges of the Government, though he described it otherwise, when ho attempted to defend his failure to provide a substitute for the second' ballot. "Sir Joseph Ward said that the Government had promised a substitute for the second ballot so as to preserve majority rule," Mr. Masse'y is reported'to have said. "What substitute was possible? The repeal of the second "ballot was justified and the only possible substitutes were proportional representation and contingent voting. Sir Joseph Ward had declared against the contingent vote in the. most emphatic terms. . . As for proportional representation it was no good having the Lower House elected on tho! same system as the Upper .House. He knew of no better system of election that the [ one already in operation. When he ' found a better one- he would be prepared to adopt it." In defiance of indisputable evidence to the contrary, the Reformers still deny having promised to fulfil the only condition under which tlu k abolition of the second ballot could1 have been acceptable to the progressive element in Parliament, namely, the substitution of some other effective method of securing the representation of majorities. The promise was made in explicit terms by the Minister of Finance in delivering the Financial •Statement on August 6th, 1912. On that occasion Mr. Allen said:—"The Government is fully sensible of the great necessity 'for electoral reform, and in due course a measure will be submitted for the consideration of members by which the system of second ballots will be repealed and another, method of election substituted." That declaration left the impression that tlie Government had already considered the available substitutes and reached a decision. The circumstances under which the Legislature Amendment Bill was introduced and passed in the House Of Representatives are fresh in the recollection pf the public. The strike was then in progress. The Bill provided merely for the abolition of the second ballot system, and offered no substitute, nor did it appear that it was intended that any substitute should be offered. The Opposition accordingly declined to allow the measure to proceed unless tho Government fulfilled its pledge. The Government, for its part, while seeking to gain a party advantage by its breach of faith, .represented the attitude) of the Opposition as conceived in a desire to embarrass the Government'atatime of industrial strife. Finally the .Bill was forced through by resort to methods hitherto unheard of in the Parliament of New Zealand. The Government has since shown no pretence of a desire to redep-ra its pledge. It is content to have returned to the old system, and has not bothered itself about means of securing the reform for which , the second ballot was devised.