THE IRISH MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—May I suggest that the opinion which you quote in your editorial notes on January 24th from the Belfast Telegraph is apt to create a very mistaken view of the operation of the Proportional system of election in Dublin ? The Belfast Tele- graph pointed out that " in Dublin, where the Unionists are said to number one in five of the population, they secured but one seat out of eighty, instead of sixteen seats," and one gathers that this result is attributed to the faulty working of the Proportional system.
I am not prepared to dispute the estimate of the Unionist electors in Dublin, though it should be remembered that a large part of the Unionist voters who carry on their businesses
within the city boundaries of Dublin live in the surrounding townships, which have separate Local Authorities, in par- ticular in Rathmines and Pembroke. Taking together the Local Councils of the two townships named, the Unionist Party secured exactly fifty per cent. of the seats. In the city of Dublin, however, there was only one candidate who contested an election purely as a Unionist. He received over 700 votes and was elected. Probably several more of Unionist sympathies will be found among the Councillors elected on the platform of municipal reform, but the total of these would not amount altogether to one-fifth of the representation on Dublin Corpora- tion, and one can only conclude that if there are as many Unionists in Dublin as the Belfast Telegraph suggests, they neglected their duty as citizens in two ways : first, they did not offer candidates, and second, they did not come to the poll. There is no doubt whatever that the system of election has proved its worth to the uttermost as the necessary machinery for obtaining a just representation of all sections of opinion among the voters who record their votes, and this has been very fully attested by the Irish Press as a whole.—I am, Sir,
The Proportional Representation Society.
82 Victoria Street (Flat 24), Westminster, S.W. 1.
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