12 WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS WHICH DETERMINE, ETC. 



of property, and people alike, split up into rival interests. 

 The interests of the locality in young colonies are therefore 

 upon the whole the dominating ones ; and in these conflicts 

 the local interests of population and property are in unison 

 so far as local matters are concerned, and together they are 

 in rivalry with similarly combined interests of other localities. 

 Moreover, it must be borne in mind that it is only in matters 

 relating to Municipal Government that property, as such, has 

 a just claim for special consideration in matters relating to 

 representation. 



The whole of the advantages secured in urban communities 

 under Municipal Government may include Water Supply, For- 

 mation and Repairs to Streets and Footpaths, Sanitation, Pro- 

 tection to Persons and Eeal and Personal Property, Parks 

 and Recreation Grounds, Street Lighting, etc. The enjoy- 

 ment of all such benefits may be said to be equally distributed 

 to each member of the community. That is, no matter 

 whether any one person of the community pays little, much, 

 or none of the taxation necessary to provide for most of these 

 common benefits, each individual has the enjoyment of them 

 equally. It is therefore reasonable that some extra share of 

 the control and distribution of such common advantages 

 should be placed in the hands of those who individually con- 

 tribute the greatest share of the taxation necessary to provide 

 for them. 



Without such a safeguard it is conceivable that the 

 luxurious demands of a majority who pay little or nothing 

 towards their provision and maintenance might, by an 

 extravagance which does not touch their pockets, almost ruin 

 the minority, who are forced to defray the expenditure. 



Having touched upon three distinct considerations which are 

 somehow to be taken into account (Population, Electors, and 

 Property) in the determination of any just and equitable 

 representation of the people, it has been shown that so far as 

 the functions delegated to a General Government are con- 

 cerned, the best form of representation should be based rather 

 upon the population quota method than upon either the 

 elector or property quota, or upon any combination of these. 

 It is advantageous, however, to show that population per se 

 is not only theoretically the fairer method, but from the 

 nature of things it fundamentally determines the number of 

 electors as well as the amount of property. For whatever 

 differences may be shown by individual districts from one 

 another, on the whole, the population quota to the total 

 population will yield for nearly all districts the same repre- 

 sentation as the elector quota does relative to the total 

 number of electors, or as the property quota does relative 

 to the total amount of property Indeed, broadly speaking, 

 the number of the population is not only the fundamental 



