“The Press” In 1865

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30946, 30 December 1965, Page 8

“The Press” In 1865

December 29 REFORM BILL.—We have one great political pleasure in New Zealand which is denied to statesmen at home. A Reform Bill there is like an aloe tree blossoming once in a hundred years. Here Reform Bills are as common as blackberries; not a year has elapsed since the passing of the Constitution Act without a crop of them. . . . The Bill just proposed by the Government, which we publish elsewhere, is a very simple one. It proposes to give one additional member to the northern part of the province, making the Sefton district into

two; —two additional members to the south of the province, making a separate district of Waimate, and another of the country surrounding the town of Timaru, from the Opihi to the Otaio rivers:— and one additional member to the district now become agricultural, lying immediately west of the Avon and Heathcote, in the centre of the province. It also gives an additional member to the West Coast, making the Provincial Council number forty-two in all, instead of thirty-seven as at present; the number of members in the older settled parts of the province remain unchanged.