THE TRANSFERABLE VOTE IX ELECTION'S. 1 77 



The members thus received 89.4 out of a possible 91 per cent, 

 of all the votes, 98.2 per cent, of what was possible, although any 

 effective next available preferences for three out of the ten members 

 elected, which were in the 766 votes of Hewson, the last continuing 

 unsuccessful candidate, were not examined or distributed. 



24. These unused 10.6 per cent. (1,248) include 766, all the 

 votes given to the last continuing unsuccessful candidate, 456 

 exhausted preferences, and 26 votes lost through fractions. Had 

 these 766 votes been distributed we would have got an effective 

 percentage of votes still greater than 89.4., which however, is only 

 1.6 less than the utmost possible 91 per cent. 



A ticket of ten candidates was run, which secured 6,185 votes, 

 just 247 less than six quotas. They got this number, 247, from 

 Independent candidates' preferences, and returned six members. 



The Labour party ran three candidates, and polled 2,126 

 votes, less than two quotas by 18 votes, which they received, thus 

 returning two members ; and two Independents secured election. 



Thus the ten members fairly represented the electorate, and it 

 is probable that many of the 1,248 unused votes contained the 

 names of one or more members marked on them. 



25. Johannesburg Municipal Election, 1910. 



Percentages. Number of Votes. 



The members got 58.4 per cent, of all votes as 



effective first votes 7>i97 



There were 14.5 per cent, of all the votes as 



effective surplus votes i>798 



There were 14.4 per cent, of all the votes as 



efifective minority votes i)77o 



87.3 per cent. 10,765 



There were 12.7 per cent, of all the votes 



unused 1,563 



loo.o 12,328 



As the remainder given by 12,328 over 11,210, ten times the 

 quota is 1,118, only three less than another quota, nine per cent, 

 of all the votes: only 91 per cent, were capable of use. The 

 above 87.3 per cent! represents 96 per cent, of all the votes pos- 

 sible to be used. These expressed wishes were all influential in 

 securing the election of the members, and compare with 42 per 

 cent, in Cape Town in 1909. 



26. The most serious evil of Municipal elections under our 

 present system is the apathy, indifference, aloofness, of the vast 

 majority of the ratepayers, and the unwillingness of good men to 

 come forward as candidates. There is a tendency for voters to 

 abstain from voting ; they seem to look on the result of the election 

 as a foregone certainty, and to think that their votes would onlv 

 swell a secured majority, or be thrown away with the minoritv. 

 Those who know say that half the voters, who do vote, would not 

 do so unless they were driven to the poll. 



Lately in Cape Town some seventeen items, involving an 

 expenditure of nearly a million and a half— ;{;i. 463, 000— was sub- 



