rring votes every vote counts to some one candidate. This means
nothing more than that the votes of rejected candidates are transferred
to the successful candidates. Where is the necessity for this? So long
as each party secures its just share of representation and elects its
most favoured candidates, there is no advantage gained by transferring
the votes. Miss Spence even declares that "every Senator elected in this
way will represent an equal number of votes, and will rightly have equal
weight in the House. According to the block system, there is often a
wide disparity between the number of votes for the highest and the
lowest man elected." Surely the mere fact of transferring votes till
they are equally distributed does not make all the successful candidates
equally popular! On the contrary, it is very desirable to know which
candidates are most in favour with each party.

+Ballot Papers Must be Brought Together for Counting.+--This is a
practical objection to the Hare system, which puts it out of court for
large electorates. If the whole of Victoria were constituted one
electorate, as at the Federal Convention election, the transference of
votes could not be commenced till all the ballot papers had come in from
the remote parts of the colony, two or three weeks after the election.
On this point Professor Nanson writes:--"In an actual election in
Victoria this 'first state of the poll' could be arrived at with the
same rapidity as was the result of the recent poll on the Commonwealth
Bill. In both cases but one fact is to be gleaned from each voting
paper. The results from all parts of the colony would be posted in
Collins-street on election day. These results would show exactly how the
cat was going to jump. The final results as regards parties would be
obvious to all observers, although the result as regards individual
candidates would be far from clear. But this, although of vast
importance to the candidates themselves, would be a matter of small
concern to the great mass of the people." These remarks are based on the
assumption that the electors vote on strictly party lines, which a
reference to Tasmanian returns will show is not usually the case. Few
will be disposed to agree that a knowledge of the successful candidates
is a matter of small moment.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] _Hobart Mercury_

CHAPTER VII.

FREE LIST SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL DELEGATION.

The _Liste Libre_, or Free List system, is a far simpler