500 



PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 



This allocation of seats would carry out the provisions of cou- 

 dition (/). Scarcely any violation of present electoral arrange- 

 ments would take place. The seventy-five constituencies for the 

 House of Representatives would not be altered in any way as 

 to their boundaries. They would simply be arranged in thirteen 

 groups, of which five Avould return seven members each and the 

 remaining eight would return five membei-s each. Even this slight 

 modification of existing electoral arrangements would be unneces- 

 sary in the case of the Senate elections. 



This, then, is the first feature of my proposed scheme : the 

 grouping of the present constituencies into larger electorates, re- 

 turning in the lump the same numbor of members. It remains 

 to explain the combination of the best features of the " j^arty list " 

 and " transferable vote " systems. 



In order to insure this, I propose to give each elector two 

 distinct votes, which may be called respectively the " party " vote 

 and the " individual " vote. The ballot-paper would be divided 

 into two parts by a horizontal line. Above the line will 

 be the name of each party, and below the line the names 

 of the candidates. The candidates' names form a vertical 

 column below the names of the parties to which they respectively 

 belong. A candidate on nomination would have to say to whici) 

 party he belonged and, if he was independent, he would count as 

 a separate party on the top of the horizontal line. The followins; 

 shows how the ballot-paper for the last Senate election in Victoi'ia 

 would have appeared under this arrangement : — 



Independent. 



Ronald 



The " party vote " v/ould be given by a cross in the square 

 opposite the party for whom the elector wished to vote, and is a 

 very simple matter. The " individual " vote is slightly more com- 

 plex. If the Hare system is adopted a single vote is given, and 

 the figures 1, 2, 3 " . . . are placed opposite the names of the 

 candidates in the order of tlfe elector's preference. For reasons 

 already formulated in the discussion on the Hare .svstem I have 



