ANALYSIS OF VOTING.

Colonist, Volume LVIL, Issue 13683, 23 January 1915, Page 4

ANALYSIS OF VOTING.

to "The Colonist.") Wellington, Jan. 22. An analysis of the voting at the general election last month throws an interesting light upon the strength of parties and upon the manner in which it was exoreased at the polls. At. the election; of* 1911, at tho first ballot, ]99,141: votes were cast- for Liberal candidates, 180,026 for Reform candidates, and 100,146 for Independent candidates, a total of 479,313. At the recent election the figures were 219,617 Liberal votes, 243,476 -Reform rotes, and 52,----812 Independent votes, a total of 515,----905. The Independent votes consisted in both cases mainly of Labour votes.: At first sight the figures suggest that there has been a very substantial inc-rease in the Reform votes, but a' closer examination shows that tho increase is more apparent than real. Ira 1911 there were 11 constituencies in which the Reform party had no candidate of their own, and, of course, in. these cases they gave their votes to'the Independent candidates, on tho sufficient ground that they wero opposing the Liberal candidates. The increase in the total vote was about 8 per cent., but. while tho Liberal vote increased byj rather more and the Reform vote by 35 per cent., the Independent vote' decreased by nearly 50 per cent. It its reasonable to assume thai a large part; of this decrease represented votes previously given to Independent candidates and now transferred to Reform candidates. The Reformers, having a candidate in every constituency, would be under no necessity of giving a single) vote to any candidate not of their own colour. On the other hand, the Liberals, who in 1911 had a candidate in every constituency, last month threw; in their lot with the Labourites in eight constituencies, and have their votes counted in their analysis as Inning been given to Independents. Taking the Liberals and Labourites as forming tho party, their analysis shows that in the North Island tho Opposition polled 148,072 votes, as against 147,892 polled by the Government, and that in the South Island the figures were 124,337 and 95 483 respectively, bringing the Opposition majority for the whole Dominion up toj 29,054. ■ Counting the Dunedin Central seat as being still held by tho Reformers, the result of tho election is to give the Government 39 European seats in the new House of Representatives, and the Opposition 37. The return of Mr Munro for the Dunedin Central seat would make the parties exactly evon. Under; a system of proportional representation in which each island constituted a constituency the Government would have had 36 members and the Opposition 40..