On Tuesday Sir Henry Kimber asked the Prime Minister whether
he could see his way to introduce in the ensuing Session any measure for the redistribution of seats in Parlia- ment and for rectifying the constantly increasing disparities in the representation of the people, seeing that under existing conditions one half of the Members of the House of Commons were returned by 5,137,117 electors, and the other half by 2,309,519 electors, and that one half of the electors of the United Kingdom returned 44.5 Members, and the other half returned 225 Members. To this the Premier replied that he could make no more promises for next Session, nor could he accept responsibility for the honourable Member's figures. If the latter part of the reply is intended to throw doubts upon the validity of the declaration that our present electoral system is grossly unjust and undemocratic—and we do not see what else was the intention—we can only describe it as exceedingly disingenuous.
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