[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Snt,—The opponents of "One vote one value" in the Transvaal declare that there are no precedents for such a course, and that all existing systems, both in this country and in the Colonies, are based upon population and not upon voters. I should have thought that a party who have con- sistently held "One vote one value" before themselves as an ideal were " estopped," as lawyers say, from using the present practice as a ground for opposing a reform for which they have always clamoured. Obviously population is the simplest basis to go upon, and, in the absence of manhood suffrage, it is the basis which will always be defended by Con- servatives who wish to preserve electoral anomalies. In a country, too, where the proportion of the disfranchised—i.e., women, children, and men without the voter's qualification— is much the same in each district, it will work no great hard- ship. It is another matter where the proportion of the dis- franchised is ninety per cent in one type of district and ten per cent, in another. But my point is that, unimportant as precedents are in such a question, we are not wholly without them. In New South Wales under the laws 44 Vic. c. 13 and 50 Vie. c. 38 the number of electors on the roll is made the basis of division, after certain geographical districts have been arbitrarily given a certain number of representatives. A Commission is appointed to revise the division periodically; but though the Commission happens to sit after each Census, the basis of redistribution is still the electorate, and not population. In the other Colonies the basis is, generally speaking, population; but in the Now Zealand electoral system, which may be taken to represent the trend of thought of an active democracy, one point is worth noticing. The basis is population, but pro- vision is made in calculating the population for adding certain arbitrary percentages to certain country districts and small boroughs. I write under correction, but it seems to me that this can only be an attempt to remedy the unfairness of the population basis, by giving preferential treatment to places which may contain a qualified electorate out of pro- portion to this Census. Such devices would be unnecessary if the groundwork of the franchise were the electoral roll and not the Census Returns.—I am, Sir, &c., OBSERVER.
[We agree; but subject to the proviso that the electoral qualification is a simple and democratic one, and that no adult white male is kept off the electoral roll on technical grounds. We desire to see the bachelor and the married man placed on an equality ; but a grown-up son must not be excluded because he lives at home.—ED. Spectator.]
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