REPRESENTATION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 112, 13 May 1911, Page 9

REPRESENTATION.

NORTH AND SOUTH. ISLANDS IN ■ PARLIAMENT. • • MR. JAMES ALLEN'S OPINIONS. faZ TJXEGEAPH— SPECIAL TO TAX POST.] AUCKLAND, This Day. In order to avoi3 the natural result of the census in regard to Parliamentary^ lepreseijtation it has been suggested by the Dunedin Star that there should be no further reduction in the ratio of southern representation. This view Mr. James Allen, member for Bruce, who is now on a visit to >, Auckland, does* not agree with. Speaking to an interviewer, he said he failed to see how the South Island was to avoid losing at least three seats before next election, since the law, as it existed, provided that there should be a preponderance in the Legislature according to population. Nevertheless, h© felt that the time had arrived when the position of the South Island would have to be considered by Parliament. They could not go on enlarging the size of the southern constituencies ; they would beconie too unwieldly to work. He • realised that there was no time to amend the law before the 'Electoral t Revision Committee sat. and the north' would probably take at least three scats from the south, but after the election exoitement irWas over he thought it would Tie"necessary to alter the law to provide that while no further reduction 'should take place in the South, a prescribed increase should take place in the north', assuming that the census returns warranted it. This would mean increasing the total number of members of Parliament, but would allow increased representation where it was justified without reducing representation where the electorates were already as large as they should be. Asked what he thought of the Dunedin Star's proposal that if the South Island was decreasing in population and prosperity a liberal expenditure of public money would be one of the most effective methods of amelioration, Mr. Allen said it was not generally realised in the north that there was ample room for expansion and development* in the south. In Central Otago ' particularly there was room for a big population if the land could only be watered and cultivated on the small settlement scheme. With Government assistance in the direction of irigation the progress in Central Otago would be very great indeed.