THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1875.

Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2110, 14 May 1875, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY FRIDAY, MAY 14, 1875.

The representation of the Colony in the General Assembly is in a very unsatisfactory state. It appears to be based upon no fixed principle, nor upon a consideration of the various conditions by which it should fairly be regulated. The custom has hitherto been at the expiry of every Parliament for the House of Representatives to appoint a Representation Committee for the purpose of making recommendations for the re-adjust-ment of the electoral districts, and the number of members which each should enjoy j'but it has only been in very few instances of a very glaring character that alterations have been made, and then only in the direction of creating additional seats, and giving the extra members to -places hitherto unrepresented at all, or very inadequately so. The difficulty has always been to take away a seat or seats from those districts which by any principle whatever are over-represented in comparison with other parts of the Colony, but the inequality of the present distribution of seats has become so manifest that Parliament next session will have to regulate the representation upon some general scheme fair to every part of the Colony. The census returns for 1874 supply us with evidence of the unfairness of the existing representation, whether tested by population, contribution to the revenue, or by a combination of these conditions. The population of the Colony, exclusive of Maoris, on the date of the census was 296,018, and the number of members of the; House of Representatives (exclusive of the four Maori members) 74, giving an average of say one member to 4000 persons, and taking this as a basis we will proceed to examine first how far the proportion is maintained so far as the Provinces are concerned, and secondly to what extent it is observed in the various electoral districts. Auckland, with a population of 67,451 should return 17 members and has-bnly 16 ; Hawke's Bay, with a, population of 9228, which should return two members, has its proper number. Taratiaki, with a population 0$ 5465, should return one . member, has three ; Wellington, with a population of 29,790, should return seven members and has nine ; Nelson, with a population of 22,558, should return five and a half members, has six and a half; Marl- ! borough, with a population of 6145, Bhould have one and a half members, has three; Westland, with a population of 14,680, should have three and a half members, whilst it has only two and a half ; Canterbury, with 58,775, should have fourteen and a half members and has only eleven ; Otago and Southland, with a population of 85,113, should have twenty-one members, and has only eighteen. But it is the electoral districts that exhibit the greatest inequality. We find seven districts with a population of over 3000, but under 2000 souls, each returning a member to Parliament ; and nineteen districts, with over 2000, but under 3000, similarly represented. The best tests are, however, the averages supplied by the Registrar-General. The number of persons to a representative for the Colony is 4000 24, whilst there ara no less than forty districts returning members whose population is short of that number. A few special cases of inequality may be cited. The Thames, with a population of 12,239, returns only one member; the Grey Valley, with a population of 8204, only returns one member ; Hokitika, with a population of 7027, ditto ; the Buller, with a population of 3522, ditto ; whilst the same amount of representation is given to New Plymouth with only 2044 persons; Grey and Bell, with 1808 ; Egmont, with 1613 ; Manawatu, with 791 ; suburbs of Nelson, with 1899; Colling wood, with 1306; Cheviot, with 1253; and Wallace with 1433. It is quite clear that a thorough redistribution of seats will have to be made ; that some of the small districts must be merged into each other, "and the! surplus members given to the more populous places. Why should the City of Nelson with only 5662 persons return two members to Parliament, and the Boroughs of Greymouth and Hokitika with 2551 and 3352 respectfully be without separate members? As more immediately relating to the West Coast Gold-fields, we are of opinion that Hokitika and Greymouth Bhould each have a member ; that the Ross district should be merged into the remaining portion of the present Hokitika district ; that the Grey Valley should return one member ; that the Inangahua district should be similarly represented, taking away the seat either from Nelson Suburbs or Collingwood, the remainder of the Buller district might remain as it is. The effect of this arrangement would be that the West Coast Goldfielcls would have six members instead of four as at present, and the extra two seats could well be taken from some of | the over represented districts — Taranaki could at least spare one for Westland, and the settled districts of Nelson could spare the other. On a future occasion we will compare the representation with the amount of revenue contributed to the Colony by the various districts.