THE ELECTION

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14267, 19 January 1920, Page 6

THE ELECTION

FREAKS OF THE BALLOT.

(Special to Times.) WELLINGTON, Friday

The result of the returning officers' official count in connection with the r<\ccnl general election justifies to a large extent the hard things that have been said about the "first past the post" system by disappointed candidates anil voters during the last week or two. The returning officer does not, of course, indicate the party colour of I lie candidates, but taking the candidates' own declarations of their policy we find that 206,i0J voles elected for.tv-four Reformers, 106,831 twentyIvvo Liberal and Liberal-Labourites, 127,026 eight official Labourites and 12,:? 1~» two Independents. Mr S. G. Smith, the member for Taranaki, Mr W. V. Vcitch, the member for Wanganui, and Mr B. Kellett, the member for Dunedin North, are accepted in these figures as Liberal-Labourites, while Mr W. 11 Lynsar, the member for (iisborne, and Colonel Mitchell, the member for Wellington Sooth, are regarded as Independents. Several other successful candidates declared themselves as Independents during the election campaign, including Mr James Craigie, the member for Timaru, and Mr C. E. Statham, the member for Dunedin South, but their former attachments may be expected to indhee them to take sides in the event of a crucial division.

I Disproportional Representation. i Assuming the party leanings of the I members of the new House to be as stated above, it took an average of 4692 voters to elect a Reform member, 68-57 to elect a Liberal-Labour member, 15,901 to elect an official Labouc. member, and 6173 to elect an Independent member. Had representation followed in proportion to the number of votes polled, the new House would have consisted of 29 Reformers (28.96 to be precise), 27 Liberal-Labourites (27.55), 18 official Labourites (17.78), and 2 Independents (1.71). But in weighing the significence of these figures in their bearing upon the strength of parties in the country, it must be remembered that opposing forces in a number of cases supported the same candidate. In the Avon and Christchurch South contests, for instance, a comparison of the voting in 1914 and 1919 will make it quite plain that the Reformers in these constituencies, having no candidate of their own in the field, solidly supported the official Labour candidates. No doubt Liberals in a similar position did the same thing, but it is not so easy to drop upon flagrant examples of their adherence to the practices of the party game. It is safe to say, however, that between them the two older parties gave 20,000 or 25,000 votes to Labour candidates and to that extent lessened their own totals in the figures under notice. An Indecisive Result. All this makes it abundantly clear that the election of a Parliament under the existing system of voting is an extremely haphazard business. The position appears to be that 206,401 electors .have got the Government they desire and 336,208 electors have not. While in a minority of 129,747 in the constituencies, Mr Massey has secured a majority of four, perhaps five or even six, in the House, without taking the, Maori members into account. The country has had minority rule before, but never in quite such a pronounced cs.easu.re as it has it now, and many of the Prime Minister's own friends are deploring the clumsy operation of the •bollot. They are obtaining what comfort they may from the reflection that a still worse muddle would have been brought about had a few score votes in Canterbury been cast the. other way. The capture of the Kaiapui. Temuka and Waitaki seats saved - Mr Massey froin returning to the House with a majority of more than one, and facing ; an opposition that probably would have, given him no quarter. Electoral Reformers are praying that his narrow escape may remind 'him of certain promises concerning "a better system than the second ballot" he made to them on the threshold of his Ministerial career.