National sees new seat as a 'stronghold’

Press, 4 May 1983, Page 40

National sees new seat as a 'stronghold’

PA Rotorua National Party organisers hope to have their candidate for the new Waikaremoana seat selected by the end of the year. They see the sprawling electorate as a National stronghold and a formation meeting in Taupo on April 30 “struck a very positive note,” said the newlyelected Waikaremoana electorate chairman, Mr A. Johnson. The Waikaremoana electorate stretches from Taupo to Wairoa, taking in the Ureweras and dipping into Hawke’s Bay. Its provisional boundaries were the subject of strong protest to the Representation Commission earlier this year. Final boundaries released on April 29 removed some of the anomalies that aroused the wrath of local bodies affected by the boundary revision. Kinloch and Wairakei, which under the provisional boundaries had been split from Taupo and placed in the neighbouring Tongariro electorate, are now included in the Waikaremoana electorate. Murupara, previously included in Waikaremoana, joins East Cape with which it claims a greater community of interest, and parts of rural Hawke’s Bay around Fernhill-Otamauri return to the Hawke’s Bay electorate. The Waikare-

moana-Tongariro boundary has also been moved south along Lake Taupo. Previously just north of Hakepe, the line is now drawn at Motuoapa. Tongariro takes in Tokoroa, Taumarunui and Turangi. An adjustment on the boundary with Ms Marilyn Waring’s Waipa electorate has been made to include Waipapa, Maraetai, and Mangakino in Tongariro. Mr Johnson said that delegates to the Tongariro formation meeting welcomed the challenge of winning the new seat, although it was felt final boundaries were "slightly in Labour’s favour.”