COUNTRY MANIFESTO.

Auckland Star, Volume XX, Issue 180, 31 July 1889, Page 5

COUNTRY MANIFESTO.

STATEMENT OF THEIR CASE.

Tho following manifesto has been drawn ud by the oountry party, and issued on the authority of tho Executive Committee of the party ; —

STATEMENT OF THE CASE OF THE COUNTRY PARTY. A3 the members representing country districts could nob debate the present Representation Bill, and thus make their views known to the colony without) in effect lending assistance to the objectionable practice of e stonewalling, it has been thought advisable to shortly' state their position through the medium of the Press. They would therefore draw attention to the following facts and arguments as entirely justifying that position :— 1. * They are supporting a Bill which introduces nothing that is new, but which endorses a principle that nearly throughout (he whole past history of the coloßy and up to the present hour has been recognised without dissent. 2. That even the main detail of the Bill, namely, an advantage to the extent of 25 per cent, of population given to the country districts, has also been the rule throughout the past history of the colony up to 1887. The Representation Act of 1881, for instance, deliberately made *' the quota for country districts less than the quota for town districts by as nearly as possible 25 per cent.," this being the actual language of an official paper then laid on the table of the House to explain the operation of the said Act. 3. This allowance to -the country districts made by the Acb of 1881 was universally recognised in and out of Parliament a"s just and reasonable. Two general elections were held under that Act, and amid all other matters then discussed net a word of objection was ever raised to the said allowance to the country districts. 4. From this allowance no departure in principle has ever been made, but in 1877 the extent of the allowance was curtailed to 18 nominally, but practically 14 per cent. The main purpose of the Bill embodying this curtailment was to equalise representation as between the North and South Islands, and all objections in Parliament to. curtailment were suppressed for a time by a threat on the part of the then Government that if the objections were insisted on, the Bill itself, otherwise a good one, would be jeopardised. 5. The true democratic principle consists in a fair distribution of power and influence in representation in proportion to population. The contention of the town members involves a very wide and most disastrous departure from that principle, inasmuch as it is recognised throughout the world that large cities, with their facilities for instantaneous organisation, and their powerful municipal institutions, their influential newspapers, and the cloBO commuity of interests that exists through all their sections, have a power and influence out of all proportion to their actual number; country members are therefore only advocating the retention of a power hitherto possessed, of correcting an anti-democratic inequality in representation. 6. This inequality is increased by the facilities which towns afford for the exercise of plural voting, a privilege which, whether right or wrong, wise or unwise, is obviously confined to small electoral areas with perfect communication. 7. Further, in every 10,000 of the city population there are 2,000 male adults who, it will bo admitted, form the bulk of the taxpayers ; on the other hand, there are 2,000 of the same class in every 7,000 of the remainder of the population of the colony, so that without taking into consideration any of the numerous political advantages large cities enjoy over the country, 10,000 of a city population should, on a taxation basis, have only the same representation in Parliament as 7,000 in the rest of the colony. This at once justifies 30 per cent, out of 53£ per cent, of the nominal reduction "from the city population demanded by the country party. Their claim is, therefore, not only supported by the constitutional maxim that representation should accompany taxation, but also by the fact that the "Constitution Act requires the representation of the colony to bo based on the number of electors, and not on the total population. The decrease of the number of members from 91 to 71, the effect of which will be felt chiefly in the country districts, would justify even a higher proportionate difference than that now claimed. 8. The statement that the concession to the country districts would mean throwing the representation into the hands of large landowners is manifestly absurd. In the pa&t, with 25 per cent, it has never produced that result, why then now 1 As a matter of fact the argument whatever it may be worth is quite the other way, since all experience shows that) the feeling against such a tendency is stronger in the country districts than in the towns.

9. A true estimate of the value of the objections now made by the town members may bo formed from a bare statement of the fact that their leader, Sir G. Grey, in 1872 introduced and strove to carry through a ±mll expressly conceding to country districts an advantage of 25 per cent. 10. The activity of the cities at the present moment in their hostility to the Representation Bill is the most conclusive proof of their power of swift organisation, and the influence they can wield. On the other hand, the wide dispersion of the country population is a serious drawback to any effective effort even in the defence of their own interests. In view of all these facts, the country members would regard it as a betrayal of their trust were they to recede from a position based upon justice,and aiming at practical equality of representative power.