A REFERENDUM IN MINIATURE.
[To THE EDITOR Or THE "SPECTITOR."1 SIR,—Much has been urged against the occasional resort to a " Poll of the People " upon the legislative proposals of the Government of the day, upon the ground that the great mass of the electorate would not be able to master the effect of the Bill submitted to them, or, if they could, would find it too difficult to answer a clear "yea" or "nay," owing to liking some provisions and disliking others they might consider of equal importance. May I call attention to the fact that recently, in accordance with the requirements of the Borough Funds Acts, a poll of the electors of the Borough of Paddington was taken to sanction the promotion by the Council of the Borough of a Bill in Parlia- ment to provide for granting superannuation to their officers and servants ? Thus the electors were asked to vote upon a Bill which, besides establishing a principle, proposed to enact various rates and scales of contributions and allowances which might or might not have laid so heavy a charge on the rates as to render the scheme, though otherwise desirable, unaccept- able to the ratepayers at large. If the electors are supposed to he competent to express a sound judgment on the desira- bility, or the reverse, of any Bill for any purpose or purposes their municipal authority may have resolved to promote in Parliament, it is not easy to see why they should not be competent to do so on a Bill that has been discussed in both Houses of the Legislature.—I am, Sir, &c., Brooke's, S.W. J. C. SWINBURNE-HANECAM.
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