BY E. L. PIESSE, B.SC, LL.B. 51 



number will not usually be proportionate to the strength 

 of the party throughout the country. (^) 



2. Proportionate representation accordingly cannot be 

 ensured except from constituencies returning many mem- 

 bers. In such constituencies the disproportion of the repre- 

 sentation will not be diminished, but will rather be exag- 

 gerated, if each elector votes for all the candidates. (*) 

 It is accordingly necessary to use some system which will 

 produce proportionate representation ; and in each system 

 the quota has an important influence in determining how 

 exact shall be the proportion of representation to strength 

 of party. 



3. In this paper the quota is considered in respect of the 

 two following classes of proportional representation 

 systems : — 



(a) Single transferable-vote systems (varieties of which 



are used in Tasmania, Denmark, and South 

 Africa) ; 



(b) Party -list systems (varieties of which are used in 



Belgium, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, and 

 other European countries). 



4. A representative assembly has usually to govern as 

 well as to represent; and government is usually carried on 

 by the party system, which requires that the party in 

 power shall have more than a nominal majority in the 

 representative body. Electoral statistics show that when 



(*) This was seen in America about a hundred years ago, when the 

 Republicau party in Massachusetts introduced the plan known as the 

 "g-erryniander," since practised with much succesi in other countries. 

 "The g'errymander is simply such a thoufjhtful construction of districts as 

 will economise the votes of the party in power by giving it small majorities 

 in a large number of districts, and coop up the opposing party with over- 

 whelming majorities in a small number of districts." (Commons, Pro- 

 portional Reprcsetitation, p. 50.) It may be noted that it would be easy 

 to divide Tasmanin into single-member constituencies which, on the 

 voting at the (-Jeneral Election of 30th April, 1912, would return 23 mem- 

 bers for one party and 7 for the other ; the representation to which their 

 respective strengths entitled ihem was 16'3 and 13'7, and these numbers 

 were produced as nearly as possible (16 and 14) at the election, which 

 was held under the single transferable-vote system of the Electoral Act, 

 1907, in five districts each returning 6 members. 



C) The most striking example in recent years is the election for the 

 Australian Senate held on 13th April, 1910, each of the six States being a 

 single constituency returning tliree members, and each elector voting for 

 three candidates. The Labor party, which polled 2,021,000 votes out of 

 4,018.000, secured all 18 seats, although in proportion lo its strength it was 

 not entitled to more than 10. 



