GIANT ELECTORATE

Evening Star, Issue 22719, 5 August 1937, Page 16

GIANT ELECTORATE

OTAGO CENTRAL REACHES THE SEA [Special to the ' Staii.’] WELLINGTON, August 5. In a corridor of Parliament Building large maps of New Zealand depicting the proposed new electoral boundaries were displayed when both parties in tho House of Representatives held meetings last week. Groups of members spent much time examining the new developments and exchanging much friendly chaff over the political consequences which may follow. Mr Bodkin, member for Central Otago, received congratulations on the new frontage to the sea on the eastside which this immense inland electorate has achieved. True, it is only a few mile's near the Taieri mouth, a kind of political corridor which is not likely to cause so much friction as some international corridors which have been evolved in recent years. Central Otago is the giant electorate of New Zealand. It runs right across the South Island at its broadest part, and has always had a sea frontage in Milford Sound. Now, however, the western sea access has gone to Wallace, the constituency' of the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, who is said to havelost a comfortable group of votes in Riverton, and will now have to cultivate Queenstown, as it has been taken out of Mr Bodkin’s area, together with Gleuorchv, Garston, and Kingston. Central Otago is so mountainous that travel difficult for political candidates. Mr Bodkin explained that the railway takes him into the heart of the area,-130 miles, to Alexandra, but the electorate goes a long way further than that. In his last campaign he frequently started the day' at 9 o’clock and kept going till 11 p.m. because it is necessary to go down long valleys and up others just to cross the high mountains which boundary' commissioners only view on maps. To completely' cover the area in a campaign means 4,(XX) miles of travel. One consolation for the Central Otago member is that although ho loses a compact group of constituents at Queenstown, he can now campaign on the easy' country of the Taieri Plain, and traverse the outskirts of Dunedin City, for the new' boundaries of his seat touch Dunedin North and Dunedin South. He has eight electorates on his borders, ranging from Southland to Canterbury, and formerly represented seven boroughs, but the recent changes have thrown two of them into adjoining electorates.