54 QUOTA IN PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION, 



ister of Finance. C^) At about the same time, Mr. Thomas 

 Hare, whose well-known book, The Election of Representa- 

 tives, Parliamentary and Municipal, was published in 

 1857, advocated a similar system in England. 



Both Andrae and Hare used as the quota the number 

 obtained on dividing the number of votes polled in the con- 

 coustituency by the number of members to be elected from 

 the constituency. This quota is commonly called the Hare 

 quota. It was used in the Tasmanian Electoral Act of 



1896, under which elections were held in the constituencies 

 of Hobart and Launceston for the House of Assembly iu 

 1897 (^) and 1900, and throughout Tasmania for the 

 Senate and House of Representatives in 1900. (^) 



7. In 1868 Mr. H. R. Droop, in his pamphlet On 

 Methods of Electing Represe?itatives,{^) proposed as the 

 quota the number obtained by dividing the number of 

 votes by one more than the number of members to be 

 elected, and adding 1. 



This quota is used in the Tasmanian Electoral Act of 

 1907, under which the General Elections for the House of 

 Assembly on 30th April, 1909, (i°) and 30th April, 

 1912, (^^) have been held. It is also used in the election 

 of members of the Senate of the Union 'of South Africa 

 and in municipal elections in the Transvaal. (^^) 



8. In the case of a constituency of 4200 voters, electing 

 six members, the Hare quota is one-sixth of 4200 (or 700) ; 

 the Droop quota is one more than one-seventh of 4200 

 <or 601).' 



Considering an election as a contest between individual 

 candidates, it is clear that a candidate who obtains, in 



(•) See JReports from His Majesty's Representatives in Foreign 

 Countries and in British Colonies respecting the Application of the 

 Priticiple of Proportional Bepresentation to Public Electioyis. (Cd. 

 3501 — House of Commons, Miscellaneou?, No. 3, 1907), p. 17. 



(') See R. M. Johnston, Observations on the Working Besults, of the 

 Hare System of Election in Tasma?iia, Fap. and Proc. Roy. Soc. Tas., 



1897, pp. 69-96. 



(8) See Report on the Hare-Clark System of Voting, by J. G. Davies 

 and R. M. Johnston, presented to tlie Senate, 13th December, 1901 

 (reprinted in Beports from. His Majesty's Representatives, Js'e., pp. 96- 

 105). 



(•) London, Macmillan, 1868 ; see also the seme author's paper in 

 Journal of the Statistical Society, June, 188 1. 



O See P. C Douglas, E. L. "Piesse, and W. A. B. Pirchall, Tasmania 

 — General Election for House of Assembly, April 30, 1909 — Beport on 

 the System of Proportional Bepresentation used in accordance with the 

 Electoral Act, 1907 (Tasmania, No. 34 of 1909) . 



(") See H. E. Packer, E. L. Piesse, and J. F. Daly. Report on the 

 General Election of 30th April. 1912 (Tasmania, No. 11 of 1912). 



('') See John H, Humphreya, Transvaal — Proportional Bepresenta- 

 tion — Beport on the Municipal Elections held at Pretoria and Johannes- 

 burg on 27th October, 1909 (Transvaal, T.G. 5 -'10). 



