44 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, 



R.S. TAS. 



way to arrange for this was to adopt the five divisions for 

 the House of Representatives as districts for the House 

 of Assembly. The House of Assembly had hitherto had 

 35 members, but it was thought that 30 would now be 

 sufficient. Mr. J. W. Evans, for these and other reasons, 

 brought in an Electoral Bill, in which Tasmania was 

 divided into five districts, each returning six members, to 

 be elected under the rules of the Electoral Act of 1896. 

 This Bill was withdrawn, and another was introduced, 

 which became law next year as the Electoral Act of 

 1907. In this Act, new rules for transferring surplus 

 votes and the votes of excluded candidates were used, 

 and the Droop quota was introduced in place of the Hare 

 quota used in the Act of 1896. These rules embody 

 what is called the fractional method of transfer; they are 

 based on a device published by Mr. J. B. Gregory, of 

 Melbourne, in 1890 (^), and used independently by Miss 

 A.M. Martin, of Adelaide (*^). The rules are the same as 

 those proposed in the Proportional Representation Bills, 

 1902, 1905, and 1906 of South Australia, and are similar 

 to the rules in the Parliamentary Elections Bill, 1900, of 

 Victoria, and to the rules in the Commonwealth Electoral 

 Bill introduced in the Senate on 24th January, 1902.(6«») 

 Their form is understood to be due to Professor 

 E. J. Nanson and Mr. John Mackey, of Melbourne. 

 The name '' Hare-Clark " is sometimes used of these rules, 

 but this is a misnomer. The frame of the rules is entirely 

 different from Mr. Clark's; his provisions for dealing with 

 surpluses are merged in a neater method, in which all 

 chance disappears; the Hare quota of the Act of 1896 is 

 abandoned, and, moreover, the rules are based on pro- 

 posals made by Mr. Gregory some years before Mr. Clark's 

 Bill was under discussion. 



Under the Act of 1907 the following General Elections 

 for the House of Assembly have been held: — 30th April, 

 1909 (see Bibliography No. 26); 30th April, 1912 (see 

 Bibliography No. 30; and 23rd January, 1913 (an official 

 report on which is now in preparation ; see also Biblio- 

 graphy Nos. 35, 36, 37). 



In 1912 the Tasmanian Workers' Political League 

 adopted in the " Launceston Voting System" for pre-elec- 



(*) See Bibliography No. 4, p. in. 



(*) See Bibliography No. 5, p 19, aii'l also Effective Voting the Basis 

 of Good Munieijxd Gorernnient : An E.rj>osition of the Principles and 

 Practice of Proportional Pepresentalion. Issued by the Proportional 

 Representation Committee ofOntario, Toronto, 1898, pp. '23-24. 



(^*) A clear explanation of the rules is contained in a memorandum 

 circulHted with the draft Bill. 



