Representatives during
1898 a Bill for the adoption of effective voting. Unfortunately members
had become wedded to single electorates, and when a change was made it
was to second ballots--a system of voting which has for long been
discredited on the Continent. In France, it was stated in the debates
on electoral reform in 1909, for 20 years, under second ballots, only
once had a majority outside been represented by a majority inside the
Chamber, and the average representation for the two decades had
amounted to only 45 per cent. of the voters. Writing to me after the
New Zealand elections in 1909, the Hon. George Fowlds (Minister of
Education), who has long supported effective voting, said, "The only
result of the second ballot system in New Zealand has been to
strengthen the movement in favour of proportional representation." And
Mr. Paul, a Labour member in the Dominion, is making every effort to
have effective voting included in the platform of the New Zealand
Labour Party. Further encouragement to continue our work came when
Belgium adopted the principle of proportional representation in 1898.

The closing year of the century found the Effective Voting League in
the thick of its first election campaign. There is little doubt that
the best time for advancing a political reform is during an election,
and it was interesting to note how many candidates came to our support.
We had an interesting meeting at Parliament House for members just
about that time. An opponent of the reform, who was present, complained
that we were late in beginning our meeting. "We always begin punctually
under the present system," he remarked. "Yes," some one replied, "but
we always finish so badly." "Oh, I always finish well enough," was the
pert rejoinder; "I generally come out on top." "Ah," retorted the
other, "I was thinking of the electors." But the doubter did not come
out on top at a subsequent election, and his defeat was probably the
means of his discovering defects in the old system that no number of
successes would have led him into acknowledging. From the two or three
members who had supported Mr. Glynn in the previous Parliament we
increased our advocates in the Assembly during the campaign to 14. The
agitation had been very persistent among the electors, and their
approval of the reform was reflected in the minds of their
representatives. We inaugurated during that year the series of
citizens' meetings convened by the Mayors of