The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1884.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4528, 3 December 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1884.

For the causo that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs reslatant% For the future In the distance-, And the Kood that we can to.

Mr Gladstone's Bill for the Redistribution of Seats, being the result of a compromise with the Tory party, could not be expected to prove all that advanced Liberals have desired. Judging however, from the summary of its provisions, which we publish in our telegraphic columns to-day, the measure is not one to be altogether condemned, and unless the, Liberal party are actuated by that foolish pride which rejects a half-loaf because a whole one is considered the correct thing, they will welcome it as a very acceptable instalment of an improved scheme of representation. If the Bill proposed to do nothing else than abolish the rotten little borough constituencies, it would be deserving the warm support of all true Liberals. But it proposes to do a great deal more. If carried into effect, it will redress the long-standing grievance of the principal cities, which have hitherto been most inadequately represented, and it will more equitably adjust the relative representation of the three divisions of the United Kingdom. Still more, the. Redistribution Bill introduced by Mr Gladstone on Monday affirms the principle that population is the true basis of representation. The old,idea of corporate privileges thus receives its death-blow, and rural populations will be treated exactly the same as the urban, while the residents of towns which have not been incorporated as boroughs, or been made such for • Par* liamentary purposes, will no longer suffer deprivation of franchise rights. A strong illustration of how this works is supplied in the case of London, the "City" portion of which is to lose two members, while the metropolis as a whole is to gain thirty-seven representatives. These, with . thirteen additional members added to Glasgow, Liverpool,.and.Birmingham, will make a sure gain of .fifty seats to the Liberals. The abolition of "three-cornered " constituencies will also be a blow to the Conservatives, who often managed by "plumper" voting to wrest one of the seats for: their candidate.; Where the Conservatives will gain is in the abolition of groups of Radical boroughs, and the merging of these in rural electorates. -But these groups of boroughs are indefensible in principle, and most difficult to work at present— a constituency returning one member sometimes consisting of five boroughs in as many different counties, and of course possessing little or no community of interest. The scheme amounts to the abolition of the existing county constituencies, as they will all be completely reconstructed and the number of voters greatlyaugmented. Another notable feature in the measure is the creation of single electoral, dis-tricts-r-a principle which we have' advocated here, though opposed to the opinions of .many with whom we btherwisefsympathise, and who are actuated

by the purest motives in seeking- to have city constituencies amalgdniated. Those who believe in " minority representation" will of course complain bitterly, and already a member ot the Government has resigned because of this provision in the bill The additions to the House of Com mons contemplated by the Bill are in all eighteen members, of whom twelve will represent Scottish and six English constituencies. On the population basis, Ireland and Wales have hitherto been better represented than England and Scotland >' hence there is no additional representation proposed for them. The Redistribution Bill probably errs most conspicuously in the minimum of 15,000 inhabitants, which is fixed as that which a borough must have in order to be allowed a member of Parliament; but> on the whole, and judging it as a compromise, we incline to the belief that Mr Gladstone has done exceedingly Well in the interests of popular representation by the terms he has made with the hereditary enemies of the people's rights.