ARCHAIC METHOD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20485, 11 December 1934, Page 8

ARCHAIC METHOD.

System of Election is

Condemned

“We certainly need a more democratic franchise than we have at the present time,” said Dr H. G. Denham, chairman of the Board of Governors of Canterbury Agricultural College, when referring this morning to the retirement of Mr John Deans. At the recent election of a representative of the A. and P. Associations—the associations concerned being Canterbury, Northern, Little River and Leeston— Mr J. R. D. Johns was elected. Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., paying a tribute to Mr Deans’s services, condemned the voting system in vogue, which permits of each association exercising one vote, irrespective of membership. The system, he said, was not fair, and it was not what the people of New Zealand wanted. It was only the institution—and the executive at that—which exercised the vote, and not the members. lie felt sure there would be hundreds in the rank and file of these organisations who would not be satisfied with the result. While there were hundreds of members there were only four votes exercised. The election was conducted under an Act of Parliament passed in 1896, and the system should be amended. Mr Howard made it clear that he was casting no reflection on the successful candidate; his protest was directed solely against the method of election in vogue.

The matter was not further discussed.