Electoral boundaries drawn again

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 2

Electoral boundaries drawn again

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

Provisional boundaries for the Selwyn and North Canterbury electorates have been drawn again by the Electoral Representation Commission. This will have minor effects on other Christchurch electorates when the commission presents final recommendations to the Governor-General before April 1.

Under the commission’s provisional boundaries, the commission had moved the Ashburton electorate north so that it reached north of the Selwyn River and stopped at the outskirts of Lincoln.

This compressed the boundaries of the Selwyn electorate, which still included Banks Peninsula, but took all of Lyttelton Harbour as far as Dyers Pass Road from the Lyttelton electorate then crossed the Waimakariri River to take in most of Eyre County east of Oxford (but not Rangiora) and the part of Kaiapoi west of the Main Road and took Belfast from the Papanui electorate. The Rangiora electorate, which had lost part of Kaiapoi and most of Eyre County, was extended north to take Kaikoura and up to the Clarence Bridge from the Marlborough electorate, which in turn had taken part of the Sounds and all the Rai Valley from the Tasman electorate.

There has been no

change at the northern end of the Rangiora electorate — to become the North Canterbury electorate — but substantial changes at the southern end.

This is mainly because of the anger of the member of Parliament for Selwyn, Miss Ruth Richardson (Nat.), who made submissions to the Representation Commission that Selwyn had simply been used for its convenience. Creating an electorate that ringed right around the Christchurch electorate was unsatisfactory. It was considered that both North Canterbury and Selwyn, but specially Selwyn, had been made more marginal under the proposed boundaries.

Miss Richardson did not succeed in one aspect, but has succeeded in another. Her Selwyn electorate still rings Christchurch, but it had been made less marginal — at the expense of North Canterbury, which is now even more marginal. North Canterbury has regained the western edge of Kaiapoi; Selwyn has lost this, but gained some farmland south of Lincoln. Selwyn has also lost Governor’s Bay back to the Lyttelton electorate. This should improve Miss Richardson’s chance of retaining Selwyn, of which there was never much doubt, but should make it harder for Mr Jim Gerard (Nat.) to hold North Canterbury.