BY E. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 15 



It may so happen that during the conflict of one election 

 his mind may be dominated by the first of these, as in the 

 case of the present elections in Ulster, i.e., by religious 

 sympathies. At another time class interests may dominate, 

 as when the question of the day turns upon the relations 

 between Capital and Labour. Again, if the burning question 

 of the day turns upon rival routes for railways, or for the 

 fair claims of the district to a share in the expenditure for 

 the construction of roads or important public works, the 

 locality interests of the individual electors may for the time 

 being become the dominant ones in determining his action or 

 choice. The definition of electoral boundaries, however 

 determined, and so long as they are fairly represented on the 

 basis of population, do not involve serious difiiculties to the 

 individual elector in exercising his influence upon the Central 

 Oovernraent with respect to his various and variable interests, 

 if we except the interests of locality. 



To afford the individual the full force of his electoral 

 privileges in respect of locality, it is necessary that the 

 interests of all electors within any distinct electoral areai 

 should be in harmony, i.e., that no important portion of the 

 district should act as a dead weight owing to its locality 

 interests being on geographical or other grounds more 

 identified with some neighbouring electoral district than with 

 its own. 



How to secure fair representation on the basis of numbers 

 whilst still preserving intact the solidarity of locality interests 

 is the great problem which the practical politician has to 

 solve ; and it is a problem which is surrounded with many 

 more practical difficulties than any of the schemes for repre- 

 sentation which are confined to the representation of the 

 person alone. It would not be difficult to divide the country 

 into distinct electoral districts, whose locality interests are 

 fairly identical, solely upon some physical or geographical 

 basis. Nor would it be a difficult matter to cut up the whole 

 country into electoral district units oh the basis of popu- 

 lation alone. 



The practical difficulty only appears when we try to obtain 

 an electoral district unit of representation which will fairly 

 coincide with both of these important considerations. 



As a matter of fact, the perfect attainment of such an ideal 

 is utterly impossible. To secure one of its important aims 

 rigidly would in most cases only be attained by the sacrifice 

 of ideal fairness in respect of the other. Fairly perfect units 

 coinciding in both aims would be purely accidental, tem- 

 porary and exceptional. 



Let us examine this matter a little more closelv. 



