4*2 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, 



R.S. TAS. 



The Electoral Bill of 1896 was brought in by Mr. Clark, 

 then Attorney-General in Sir Edward Braddon's Ministry. 

 The Bill applied Hare's method to two electorates — Hobart 

 (6 members) and Launceston (4 members), leaving the 

 rest of the country in single-member electorates. The 

 rules for transferring surpluses originally proposed 

 (Appendix 1 below) were those of Hare, but in answer to 

 critics who thought that these rules left too much to 

 chance, Mr. Clark proposed the modifications from which 

 the rules of the Act have come to be known as the Hare- 

 Clark system, and by which the most important part of 

 the element of chance was removed. (Appendix 2.) 



The element of chance in the transfer of surpluses had 

 been noticed by Miss Fawcett in 1872 (Henry Fawcett and 

 Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Essays and Lectures, Lon- 

 don, 1872, pp. 336-368), by H. R. Droop in 1881 {On 

 Methods of Electing Eepresentatives, Journal of the Sta- 

 tistical Society, XLIV., June 1881, pp. 141-196, it 

 p. 182), by Sir John Lubbock in L890 {Representation, 

 London, 1890) and others; and had been discussed by 

 Mr. Clark himself as long ago as 1874, in a paper in The 

 Quadrilateral. {^) Sir John Lubbock pointed out that 

 the element of chance might be reduced if rules such as 

 those afterwards employed by Mr. Clark were used; but 

 he did not think it necessary to use such rules. Mr. 

 Clark's contribution to the rules, although anticipated by 

 Sir John Lubbock, was original, so far as I can learn, and 

 these rules are still commonly known as the Hare-Clark 

 rules. Mr. Clark's principal claim to be remembered in 

 connection with the Hare system is not, however, derived 

 from these arithmetical details, but from his having been 

 the means of using the Hare system for the first time in a 

 Parliamentary election in a British country. 



The Electoral Act of 1896 contained a provision that 

 it should remain in force only until 31st December, 1897, 

 but it was afterwards extended, and it remained the elec- 

 toral law of Tasmania until repealed by the Electoral Act 

 of 1901. The elections held under it were: for the State 

 House of Assembly: Hobart (6 members) and Launceston 

 (4 members), 20th January, 1897 (see Bibliography, Nos. 

 3, 4, 6, and Hobart Mercury, 21st January, 1897; Hobart 

 (6 members) and Launceston (4 members), 9th March, 

 1900 (see Mercury, 10th and 12th March, 1900) ; for the 

 Commonwealth House of Representatives (5 members) and 

 Senate (6 members), the whole of Tasmania being one con- 



O See liiblu.gruphy No. 1. 



