Electoral Rolls

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26513, 30 August 1951, Page 6

Electoral Rolls

The European and Maori electoral rolls have expanded substantially in less than two years. The increase of 57,712 includes 53,221 more European enrolments and 4491 Maori. The principal increases in rolls in European electorates re» fleet urban development on the outskirts of the main cities. Five outlying Auckland electorates show increases ranging from 1800 to 2500. If the total increase were spread evenly over all the Epro. pean electorates, the average accession of strength would be about

700. One of Wellington’s outlying electorates, Otaki, has the largest increase (2686) and now the biggest roll (20,420) in the Dominion. Im Christchurch, the trend is reflected in increases of 1357 and 1134 respectively in the electorates of Hurunui and Selwyn. It is as well, probably, that the test of the administration ef the present Government 81 months after its election is being applied with the electorates ip their 1949 form. Whatever happens, nobody will be able to say that the test was distorted by boundary revisions or by the change back to total population from adult population made in last year’s amending electoral act. It is unfortunate, nevertheless, that the unbalance in electorates that was so marked in 1949 is even more marked to-day. On the enrolment figures, the Dominion average would be 15,356. One electorate has more than 5000 above the mean, two have between 4500 and 4000. On the other hand, two electorates are about 5000 below the mean. Between the extremes there are disparities of more than 10,000 enrolments; Otaki has nearly twice as many enrolments as Auckland Central and Wellington Central. These are facts which clearly emphasise the heed for the revision of electoral boundaries that will in due course follow the recent census.

The disparities between European and Maori electoral rolls is an old and much-discussed question; but | no examination of electoral enroli ments can fail to notice it. All the Maori electorates are below the European mean; Northern Maori is 5414 below and Southern Maori 13,936 below. The desirable eventual remedy would be the fulfilment of the forecast made by Sir Apirana Ngata in 1949, that "with“in the next' decade we [the “Maoris] will request the abolition “of the present system of Maori “representation in Parliament, and “ insist on being represented in “common with the Europeans in 1 Parliament There are few signs at present that Maori thought is moving in this direction. This being so, the new enrolment figures emphasise the need for thought to be given to the anomaly that in terms of parliamentary representation a vote in the Southern Maori electorate is 10 times as valuable as a European vote calculated on the mean of European electorates, and 13 times as valuable as a vote in Otaki.