THE NEW ELECTORATE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 192, 14 August 1911, Page 4

THE NEW ELECTORATE.

The Representation Commissioners have finished their labours, and tho result of the redistribution of Beats is hardly so satisfactory to the Xorth Island as was generally anticipated. The net outcome of the readjustment is that the Xorth Island gains one seat and the South Island loses one. There are SO constituencies in the two islands, and excluding the four Maori electorates, the North Island has 41 and the South Island .".5 members in the Lower Ilouse. The proposed change will give the Xorth Island 42 members an<Tthe South Island 34, thus leaving the Xorth with 8 more votes in the Lower Mouse than the South. The new electorate will form part of the existing electoral district of Waikato and Taumarunui, with a small area from Tauranga; and the rapid growth of population in tnese districts, more especially along the course of the Main Trunk line, fully justifies the location of the new electorate there. The process by which the representatives are redistributed seems to be rather a mystery to most people. It would be obviously unfair to the sparse-ly-settled country districts to allot members to them on the basis of a strict average of the countryV' j'apujation. According to the census of 1007, there was a total urban population of 424,072. and a rural population of 404.304. The actual average would -have been 11,700 for the 76 seats. But the Art provides that £S per cent, shall be added to the rural population so as to equalize the representation, and the nominal population of the country thus comes to 1.018.351. which, divided by 70, gives a q.iota of 13.400. But the "census shov.-s the population of Jhe country has so far increased as to make the quota on the. present basis 15,164. Th" new quota i* thus 1704 in excess of the old; for the total number of seats has not been increased by the transfer of one seat from South to Xorth. Xo doubt as the growth of population enlarges we will find that the electorates will become unwieldy, and further additions to the House of Representatives will be necessary. But in tho meantime the relative reduction of population in the rural districts In the Souih is making these electorates too large in area to be worked conveniently as one constituency. It is evident that the equitable distribution of the seats is by no means an easy task, that a large number of considerations must be taken into account in adjusting them, and thai the present arrangement is at best onTy tentative aud provisional.