The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1923. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1439, 13 December 1923, Page 4

The Waipa Post. Published on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1923. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS.

CONCLUSIVE though the British elections have been in the rejection by the electors of a policy of tariff reform, they are to be regarded as totally inconclusive as an expression of the favour of the constituencies for any one of the three political parties. The Conservatives will be numerically the strongest party in the new House. But the comfortable majority of 77 which Mr Baldwin possessed over any possible combination against him in the old House has been utterly dissipated—in the eyes of some of his candid friends, according to the cabled reports, wantonly dissipated. The Conservatives are now in a minority of about 80 as against the Liberal and Labour Parties which occupied common ground in opposing their tariff reform proposals. The Labour Party will muster a solid phalanx, nearly 200 strong, in the new Parliament. Its success at the polls has exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its leaders. Their own estimate of the number of members the party would comprise in the new House was 160. A possible explanation of the remarkable accession of strength which the party has received is that large numbers of electors, who are not in sympathy with their policy, supported Labour candidates simply because they have seen the country stagnate under both Liberal and Conservative Prime Ministers. But the Labour Party is in an overwhelming minority in the new House as against the combined Conservative and Liberal Parties. The elections furnish an object lesson of considerable value to New Zealand. In the new House of Commons the Mother Country will have her first experience of the existence of three parties, none of which will be in a position to provide a Government that can commend a sufficient measure of support to defeat any possible combination that may be brought against it. The three-party system will dominate the political situation and operate as an obstructive influence. There can be no escape from political paralysis unless through a sinking of certain differences. During the election campaign there were utterances by prominent Liberals, and there have been also since the polling, urging the desirability of reform of the electoral laws in order that the representation of majorities might be secured. The same cry is being raised at Home as Ave have heard in New Zealand from the two parties which are in opposition to the Reform Government. But it is to no useful purpose that the claim is made for the creation of new electoral machinery. No electoral system has been invented that can prevent the occurrence, under a three-party system, of the state of affairs with which the new Parliament at Home is confronted and which obtains to a less pronounced .extent in the House of Representatives of this Dominion. No expedient in the shape of second ballot, or proportional representation, or preferential voting offers any safeguard against the possibility under the three-party system that there may be no party in a position to command a majority in the Legislature independent of the assistance of another party. In the case in which the strongest party has but the most slender of majorities over the other two combined the position is only a shade less unsatisfactory than where no party has a majority at all. It must almost inevitably happen, sooner or later, that the three-party system will spell political compromise. Already suggestions are being thrown out for the establishment of a coalition in the House of Commons or for the adoption of some arrangement by. which the confusion or "stalemate" consequent upon the elections may be overcome. The alternative of another election would offer no assurance that there would not be a repetition of the present division difficulty; so long as the present party divisions obtain. It Is only by co-operation between the parties which confess the greater measure of agreement that the evils of the three-party system can be eliminated. This will have to be recognised at Home. It must be recognised not less ungrudgingly in New Zealand. The Otago Daily Times, dealing with the subject from this viewpoint, says: "Between the Reform and the Liberal Parties there is no such disagreement on matters of principle, no such differentiation on party lines, as to render it impracticable for them to join forces against the third party, committed as it is to a policy which they are united in condemning. They condemn that policy because it is directed to the abrogation of the rights of private ownership, to the choking of the springs of human ambition, and to the destruction of personal incentive and initiative. By the sinking of their differences, mainly of a petty description related in some degree to private dislikes and prejudices, it is within

their power to promote and assure the existence of that stable Government which is necessary for the welfare of the country. It is time that the politicians recognised what the public recognises—that an end should be put to the three-party system."