N.Z. PARLIAMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 7 October 1936, Page 6

N.Z. PARLIAMENT

A reallocation of seats SOUTH ISLAND MAY LOSE ONE (Per Press Association —Copyright). WELLINGTON, Oct. 6. There is much speculation m “the Parliamentary lobbies concerning the redistribution of electoral 'boundaries which is required to be- made as a result of the census taken early this year. • From the figures announced by the Government Statistician, it is clear •that the South Island must lose at least one seat to the . North. Island uriless a change'in the law is made this session, and there are no indications that the Government has, any mention of altering the law 1 governing the matter;

To-day the North Island has fortyseven seats and' the. Sonth Island twenty-nine, the- balance of the Parliamentary representation being, made up of three Maori seats in the North Island and one in the South Island. The previous redistribution of boundaries, in 1926, resulted in the loss of one South Island seat to the North Island, the Ashburton electorate being abolished and merged with Ellesmere, which was re-named Mid-Canterbury. and-the North Island gaining a new electorate which was named Auckland Suburbs;:. ',, Wlien the next redistribution is made it is expected .that the seat taken from the South Island will ;obo//t either extreme of the island,//sphl Awarua seems the one most- likely to disappear: ■ The new"electorate;l.h the North Island will almost certarnly be in Wellington city or the iHuiti Vnllev, ami it may be found that' district of ; nslowj which embraces the suburbs of Ngaio and Khandallah, may be constituted a new electorate with part of Petone included. This would relieve the present overpopulated electorates of Wellington Suburbs and Hiitt, and enable the Wellington East electorate to bo brought within the quota that is fixed.

/ Boundary revision cannot be set In motion until the Government Statistician is in a position to provide the Boundaries Commissions—one , for the North Island and another for the South Island—with population details much moi’e- minute in respect to -areas than the information already published from district enumerators. ,

For this reason the process of readjustment may not commence for a month or two, but the Electoral Act requires the Statistician to report these details as early as possible, and following this, the Representations Commissions must make t-heir allocations of the electorates within three months.

The Representation Commission for the North Island will cqmprise the Surveyor-General and the Commissioners of Crown Lands for Taranaki and Auckland, with two unofficial members appointed by the Government. The South Island Commission will comprise the Commissioners of Crown Lands for Westland, Canterbury iand Otago, with two unofficial members. Both North and South Island Commissions sit jointly in the important preliminary stage when they have to take, a general survey of the population results of the census and allocate the figures in the separate categories of rural and urban. The residents of sixtyfour towns and cities and those living within four miles of the chief post officers of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin come into the urban figures, the remainder being rural population with an electoral advantage of 28 per cent to tbeir numbers. This country quota has been much criticised, but the new Government has made no change in the system and therefore it will operate automatically.

In the previous readjustment ot electoral boundaries, the Commissions calculated,that the NorthTslai/i had .a population; of- 831,813, but. th^Qjcnihtry ■quota enlargement raised 'the total' to 929,388. The South Island actual total of 512,656 was increased by 61,210 to 576,896.

The operation of the country quota may have the effect of saving the South Island the loss of a second seat. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister gave a promise that for this Parliament, he would not interfere with the system as at present existing.

Tim Commissions, in fixing the new boundaries, are directed by Statute to have regard to community of interest, facilities of communication and topographical features, and their proposals are announced tentatively in advance in order to receive objections before the final revision is gazetted.