THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY JULY 8, 1899. ABSOLUTE MAJORITY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 3463, 8 July 1899, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY JULY 8, 1899. ABSOLUTE MAJORITY.

Several suggestions have from time to time been made to improve the present system of election, but so far no measure has been passed by the legislature. The Premier’s Second Ballot Bill is regarded as entailing too much expense, and consequently has been rejected. Mr O’Regan has a measure which people do not seem to understand. and Mr McNab’s Absolute Majority Bill suffers for the same reason. The Premier's bill is of course the simplest, but it cannot he released from the objection of bein" expensive. That to the politician is a serious drawback, as auy addition to the ■present expense of contesting an election ;is a thing which he desires to avoid. Mr McNab’s bill would not increase the cost, but it is doubtful Whether the general run ■of electors would be able to record an intelligent vote under it. To Mr McNab and others who have studied it, it is simplicity I itself, but one has not much time in the ballot box for reflection, and consequently it is doubted whether the average electors : would grasp its full significance without I more explanation than could bo given. ; This is the objection to Mr McNab’s bill, but really we are unable to see any reason r why it cannot be understood without a ‘ great deal of trouble. At aay rate the voter ought to have no groat trouble, for ; so far as we can see ho needs only to know Ills own mind. Asa preface to tao bill Mr ! McNab by way of explanation gives ex- ■ simples of how the scheme may bo carried out, and from these the electors’ duties appear very simple. He takes a single constituency for which there are four candidates, the voting papers of which are printed just as at present. The voter is to vote for only one of these, and just as at present he leaves the name of his favourite untouched, and draws his pencil through the names of the others. So far there is no difference between the present system and that suggested by Mr McNab, but the voter’s duties are not yet completed. The voter has now drawn his pen through the names for whom he has not voted, but he must next make up his mind, as to which of these three ho would have voted for, had not his I'avourite, for whom he has voted, been standing. Say the names are, as Mr McNab has placed them, Reid, Kingston, Braddon and Turner, and the voter has drawn his pencil across all but Braddon, he must select one of the other three, before whose name he places the figure 1, another before whoso name he places 2, and another before whose name he places 3. The result is that he has made plain that Braddon is the man he wishes elected. The other three stand thus: Kingston 1, Reid 2, Turner 3, and that shows that next to Braddon, Kingston is the voter’s favourite, next to him comes Reid and last comes Turner. So far as wo can see there is no great difficulty in the voters way. He ought to be able to make up his mind as to the order of preference in which he would place the candidates, and ho having done this would only have to write thefigures opposite their names. But we are afraid the Liberal party would lose under rJais system, because as a rule the second a nd third Liberals who come out in election o< mfcests are inferior men, and the danger w ouid be that the voters would place a good Ci } user va Live candidate before a bad Liber u.l. That, of course, would force Liberals to vote for Conservatives very frequently, and thus possibly elect them. However, the counting of the votes appears to us somiev/hat complicated, but it ought not be difficult to train the returning officers to it. To train them is not like training a whole community. They are, as a rule, intelligent men, and ought to be able to grasp it easily. According to the bill the first count of the votes would be conducted exactly as at present. Then the name lowest on the voting paper would be struck off and the votes recorded for him would be distributed amongst the others in the order of preference, as marked 1,2,3 by the voters. Again,a count would take place, and the lowest of the remaining three would be struck off, and Ais votes again distributed amongst the remaining two, in the same way, and thus finally the one getting the most

votes would be declared duly elected The one elected, therefore, must have an absolute majority, and this is what is aimed at. Whether this would be the success which its author claims for it is not easy to say, but there can be no doubt that something is necessary. Each election brings out a crop of candidates some of whom have not the slightest chance of election, and who only make nuisances of themselves. We have been more fortunate than most electorates for many years; we have had only two candidates, but this year a whole host of them are promised, and many votes will be thrown away on some of them who have not the remotest chance of election. It is to avoid this sort of thing the measures we have mentioned aim at, but members have a dread of a change lest it may prove disadvantageous to them, and consequently it is very doubtful whether anything will bo done this year