CORRESPONDENCE PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

New Zealand Tablet, 30 December 1920, Page 35

CORRESPONDENCE

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION.

[We do not hold ourselves responsible for opinions • 3? *5 expressed -by our correspondents'. l]

• ■ J *-*■ 4s |: ;f To THE Editor. j Sir, —New Zealand papers which have . recently reached the United Kingdom contain reports of a debate in Parliament in which it appears to have been that proportional representation was a failure in -, mi - s Sew South 'Wales Legislative Assembly last April. This is very far from being the case. ;V- ---* It 5 is true that the smooth working of the system was greatly prejudiced, as far as the voters were concerned, by a regulation making compulsory the markup of pi ferences for every candidate. This regulation—violates the freedom of the elector in the Jerome of his franchise—was maintained in spite of strong efforts of sup -porters of proportional representation. It was, witho doubt, the cause of e disfranchising tens of thousands o ... voters. Apart, however, from this -inspired regulation, the system gave excellent results. True, it procuce .■ nearly even balance of parties in the Assembly, but toi the reason that the main currents of. opinion were nearly evenly balanced in the country. Proportional representation did not place a minority party in power with a large majority of seats, as did the “first-past-the-post system in New Zealand at the last election. v* The general fairness with which proportional icpiesentation'worked in New South Wales may be judged from the following table showing the result for the three greatest parties;—• ■ New South Election 1920. i Party Votes Polled Seats Won Votes per Seat Official* Labor 241,348 . . ... 42 ... <^4B Nationalist. 164,176 .... 28 ... ' > ’ Progressive 82,185 ••• 1 ; "* ••• 0,.i • Electors in New ' Zealand may like to compare these results with those of their own last General Election, which were approximately as follows; New Zealand Election 1919. J Party Votes Polled Seats Won Votes per Seat Reform 194,833 ... 44 ... 4,428 "Liberal 164,096 ... 19 ... 8,636 Official Labor 125,970. ... 8 ... 10,746 - - These - are very striking figures. In New Zealand each supporter of the Reform Party has as much weight in Parliament as two Liberals or four members of the Labor Party. The “first-past-the-post” system is in operation also in the United Kingdom and gives results analogous to those in New Zealand elections. A vote cast for a Coalition candidate in 1918 has about four times as much weight in Parliament as a vote given to a non-Coalition candidate. The latest application of proportional representation 'in parliamentary elections took place in the city of Winnipeg. • The election was in every way a great success. The .results were fair. Ten members were elected for the city. Some 48,000 votes were polled, and although there were 41 "candidates, only 1.7 per cent, of the votes were invalid, a .very good result in view of the cosmopolitan character of the electorate. The British principle freedom in pre/Terence marking was adopted. The press was enthusiastic and proportional representation is rapidly extending in Canada. v I venture to bring these facts before the notice of your , readers so that the bearings of the false step taken by New South Wales may be fully understood. Proportional representation there gave'fair results-but the regulation compelling electors to mark preferences for all candidates was both unnecessary'and disastrous. — Etc., », • • > John 'H. Humphreys, ' ; V; Secretary, - -t •< The Proportional Representation Society, ; 82 Victoria Street, London. October 19, 1920. .