The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1914. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

Waipa Post, Volume VI, Issue 307, 21 April 1914, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 1914. PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

TASMANIA'S experience of proportional representation has not been satisfactory, and in the light of recent political happenings in that country this allegedly perfect system has not proved the success in practice that has so often been claimed for it. In

Tasmania public opinion is about evenly divided between Liberals and Labourites. The result is that the parties are returned in practically even strength. At the present moment one man, a dissatisfied Liberal, holds the balance of power; his vote has just turned the Liberals out of office, and now the new Labour Government is depending upon his goodwill. It will easily be recognised that legislation under such conditions degenerates into a mere farce. The Sydney Morning Herald, dealing with this question, points out that even a dissolution may not result in the formation of a stable Government. It is by no means beyond the bounds of possibility that the country may return an equal number of Liberal and Labour members and the Tasmanians will again be in the predicament of having no Government at all. It

says that like the Second Ballot in New South Wales, proportional representation in Tasmania was introduced with the best of intentions, and, like the Second Ballot, it has produced unexpected results of which not even the most loyal apologists can approve. It has been laid down that electoral reform must engage the attention of the new Government. It is not proposed to entirely discard the system, but to alter it in such a manner as to make it impossible for an equal number of representatives on each side of the House being returned. Such an alteration, however, must strike very severely at the theoretical qualifications of the system.

The Prime Minister stated at Auckland the other day that among the measures to be introduced in the coming session of Parliament would be one dealing with the method of electing members of the House of Representa-

! fives. We have a shrewd suspicion that this measure will deal only with city electorates. It will probably provide for proportional representation in the four large centres, leaving the country electorates to remain as at present. It would be impossible to apply the system of proportional representation to the rural constituencies, unless the country quota were abolished, and this would never be sanctioned. The Bill will be awaited with absorbing interest.