ELECTORS' PROTEST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 46, 23 August 1911, Page 2

ELECTORS' PROTEST.

ALTERATIONS OF BOUNDARIES POSITION OF OTAKI ELEOTORATE. THE HOTEL PROBLEM. The first ahot at the Representation Commissioners, in connection with their I report concerning electoral boundaries, waa fired at Pahautanui last evening, when a well-attended meeting of protest waa held. Mr. W, Galloway, a member of the 'Hutt County Council, and I member for the Horokiwi Biding, occupied the chair. Apologies for absence were received from Messrs. E. BoultOft, J.P., and I*. Bra4y, J,l\ "AN UNJUST BLOW." I They all knew, explained the Chairmail, that there had been a readjustment of electoral boundaries, and as a result the hotels at Pahautanui and Porirua had lost their licenses. Taking everything into consideration, they had beoft well treated by Mr. W. H. Field, M.P., and he( the speaker) would certainly like the people to para a resolution to try and ( get this portion returned to tho Otaki Electorate, to be represented by Mr. Field or some man in* v terested in, farming, If the hotel wan closed, what would Pahautanni bo like? The people would be hermits. If they took a step in the right direction, it *ould lie to place this district back in the Otaki Electorate. People came there to buy stock, And if the hotel wa« closed where would they stay? The population was too ©mall for an accommodation house to be provided. The people would lose their ealeyards, and they would be jammed down by a prohibition district. If they were voted out, they would bow to the decision, but the position of affairs was different. They were to bs tacked on to Miramar and other suburbs of Wellington. The Hutt County Council had lost a lot of money through the recent financial adjustment, juid it must bo remembered that the local hotel paid £25 to the council for jt license, and if this sum was lost the council must collect it off the land. He added that he had been trying to get the rates lowered, but this change would not help matters. (Applause.) The occurrence wa« an unjust blow to thej district. It looked ' as though all the hotels on the coast would be wiped out.' . Mr. A. Nicol thought the the community of interest necessitated the change they desired. He did not think that many people would like to ccc ] the hotel dosed by the change in boundaries. He (the owner of the local hotel) was the least sufferer of all, but one proprietor in the electorate had lost heavily by tho last licensing poll, and now this person stood to lose still more. The speaker strongly supported tho objects of the meeting. ( Several of those present spoke in a similar strain RESOLUTION CARRIED. The Chairman moved :— _ "That this meeting of electors strongly protests against the exclusion from the Otaki Electorate, and the inclusion in the Wellington Suburbs and Country Districts electorate of the districts of Porirua, Paremata, Pahautanui, and Plimmerton, and resolves td lodge an objection with the North Island Representation Commission accord- ' V in#sr»y.j*. ■ , : The speaker added that if Mr. Field or some other farmer did not represent the .district, they would have a, commer cialman, and they had no community of interest with commercial men, as the district was a farming one. Mr. J. P. Luke, M.P., had stated in the House of Representatives that the iron industry: had been thoroughly, neglected by ■ Parliament, and that the farming community had been well looked after. If they Were represented by a commercial ' man, he thought they would fare very badly. . , , •, Mr; A, Iggulden seconded the motion, which carried by acclamation. PETITION SIGNED. A petition which was addressed to Mr. John Strauchon, Surveyor-General, chairman of the North Island Representation Commission, Government Buildings, Wellington, was as follows:-— "We, the undersigned electors of the present. Otaki Electorate, tfespectfully object to the proposed boundaries of the new Otaki Electorate, in so far as tho Porirua, Paremata, Pahautanui, and Plimmerton districts are excluded from the electorate and placed in Wellington Suburbs and Country Districts. Our interests 'are at on© -with those of the Otaki Electorate generally^ and we have no community of interest whatever with Miramar, Island Bay, Karori, and the larger portion of the Suburbs electorate. We have for many years been electors of Otaki, and stfonglj desire to remain so, inasmuch as the same line of railway and main West Coast road intersect our district and the remainder of tho 'Otaki Electorate. "We submit that the Wellington Suburbs, Hutt, Otaki, and Manawattl electorates 'could be unproved and with- 1 out exceeding the number provided for adjustment by tho Legislature Act, if the following alterations were made :— "(1.) Take from the .Hutt Electorate |fid give to Suburbs the Borough of Eastbourne, which h&s no community of ( interest with Hutt, and which is strictly a suburb of Wellington. "(2) Take from Otaki and give to Hutt, that portion of tho Mungaroa I Riding of the Hutt County, which is now j included in the Otaki Electorate, but ! which has no community of interest ; whatever with Otaki, and properly belongs, as part of the Hutt Valley, to tho Hutt Electorate. The member for Otaki must travel unnecessarily all the way from Wellington to Upper Hutt and Kaitoke to attend to- the interests of a comparatively small body of electors, though the interests of his electorate generally are along the Manawatu line. " (3) Take from Suburbs and give back to Otaki the districts of Porirua, Paremata, Pahautanui, and Plimmerton. "(4) Tako from Otaki and give to Manawatu a convenient area north of the Borough of Foxton, between that town a-nd Che proposed northern boundary of the new Otaki Electorate. This territory more properly belongs to Mafia- i watu than to Otaki, and the new Manawatu Electorate comprises about five hundred lees people than the new Otaki Electorate, thus leaving room for the adjustment asked for. " Though not, perhaps, strictly in order in so doing, we cannot refrain from pointing out the great hardship which will result to the persons con cerned in the loss of the Porirna and Pahatttanui hot-el licenses without the vote of the people, if the proposed boundaries are maintained." The petition was signed by a, large number. LICENSING. Mr. .T. W. Jones moved, and Mr. S. Gardiner seconded : " That a deputation wait on the Prime Minister with a request that an amending clause be added to tho Licensing Act to provide that in .the eyent of, any portion of a district being transferred by the Boundary Commission from one electorate to another raider different licensing conditipns, the conditions

existing in the said district shall not be altered to agree with those of the absorbing electorate." This was carried unanimously, and the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chair.