The Star. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1923. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN IRELAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17183, 29 October 1923, Page 6

The Star. MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1923. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN IRELAND.

A summary of the influence of proportional representation in the general election in Ireland has been forwarded to “ The Star ” by Mr John li. Humphreys, secretary of the Proportional Representation Society. The summary is of particular interest in Christchurch, because the Irish election was the largest Parliamentary election, so far as the electorate was concerned, held under the single transferable vote form of P.R., which is the system in use iu municipal elections in Christchurch. The 153 members of the Irish Parliament were elected not from 153 constituencies, hut from 30 constituencies, returning from three to nine members each. The City of Dublin returned fifteen members, but was divided into two, a course that has been advocated by “ The Star ' in relation to the Christchurch municipal election, where the return of sixteen members tor one constituency has proved slightly cumbersome. The electors voted by numbering as many candidates as they wished in the order of their choice. The Irish electors used this system with intelligence, Mr Humphreys says. Contrary to what was stated by some Press correspondents, the. official result sheets showed that there was no wild cross voting as between Government and Republican candidates. In County Dublin, and in the City of Cork, the transfers from Government to Republican candidates were one half tof one per cent. The figures for the whole country showed that once more P.R. gave fair representation, seats being obtained in almost exact proportion to the votes cast. Mr Humphreys writes:— All over the country electors are conscious of being represented. In Great Britain and in many Dominions large numbers of citizens aTe in some districts permanently cut off from direct association with Parliament; the franchise has no effective value. The representation of each party in Ireland is distributed over the whole country. There are no solid blocks of territory like the provinceiof Quebec in Canada, the Orange Free. State in South Africa, or some urban areas in Australia, constituencies of which are held, or in the past have been held, almost wholly by one party; Members of the Irish Frc-e S,tafe Government Party come from every constituency in Ireland save two. The Republicans have representatives also from nearly even- constituency. The fifteen Farmer members come from fifteen different counties; the same is \true of the fifteen Labour members. The exaggeration of political differences as between one part of the country and another a p<y:ent factor of disintegration—has through P.R. been avoided. Tne point is of considerable importance to the whole English-speaking wprld. Nearly all the political leaders of each party were elected. This was in striking contrast with what happened in Great Britain in 1918, when nearly all the Opposition leaders were swept away, in Canada in 1921, when the Prime Minister was dismissed, and in New Zealaiyl in 1919 when the Reader of the Opposition (Sir Joseph Ward) lost his seat. Under P.R., Mr Humphreys points out, there is no such weakening of the personnel, of Parliament as arises from an indiscriminate wholesale dismissal of party leaders. This point is of interest in New Zealand at the moment, for Mr Massey's crude proposals for P.R. for the city and preferential voting for the country might very easily cost a country Prime Minister his seat, whereas a city Prime Minister would be almost certain of re-election as one of a group. ** The fair representation which the Republicans have obtained cannot endanger the Treaty,” Mr Humphreys writes. "It lias encouraged that school of thought within the Republican movement which prefers constitutional to unconstitutional methods. In a world which at this moment gives too many examples of reaction against parliamentary government it will be a very notable achievement if ill Ireland P.R. strengthens the idea of government through parliament by encouraging in any degree the forces which would substitute constitutional for unconstitutional action.”