378 



Report S.A. A. Advancement of Science. 



(e) The system of "proportional, representation," or "single trans- 

 ferable vote." 

 With all of these systems most of us are more or less familiar ; 

 indeed, I think I am safe in saying that with the exception of the 

 last, viz., proportional representation, they ha\e all been tried at one 

 time or other in South Africa. T shall now proceed to show how 

 these systems work in practice. 



(a) Single Membeh Constituencies, or Wards, each Elector 

 HAVING One Vote. 



This is the system at present emploj'ed by practically all munici- 

 palities within the British Empire. It is also the system on which 

 members are elected to tlie British House of Commons and, with one 

 or two very sliglit exceptions, to the various South African Legislative 

 Assemblies. Let us glance for a moment at its practical efi'ects. In 

 the first place, let us assume a contest between two strong political 

 bodies, A and B, and that the constituencies are so equally divided 

 that each contains relatively the same proportions of the two con- 

 tending parties. If A happened to be the stronger, then B would 

 have no representation at all — in other words, if in each constituency 

 the A's had a bare majority of 1 they would win every seat. This is 

 of course an extreme case, but something approaching this actually 

 happens in practice. 



Take the last two elections for the London County Council. 



London County C'onncU Election. 

 1904. 



Parties. 



! q 4- . I Seats in 



Votes, i 1 , • ' ] I Proportion 

 obtained. . Kr i. 



to Votes. 



Progressives and Labour 



Moderates 



Independents 



Progressive Majority over Moderates 



1907, 



