The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15,1866.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1614, 15 February 1866, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15,1866.

The Provincial Council Extension Ordinance is now printed, and the schedule will be found in another column. The general effect is to add seven members to the Council, that is, to increase the number from 37 to 44. This is done by slicing out from certain districts, chiefly those in the outskirts of the province, so many new districts as have appeared by their population to deserve separate representation. Those districts which are nearest to the oldest settled portions of the province have had some of their boundaries slightly amended, and in one case a division of one district into two has taken place ; but the representation has been neither increased nor diminished. There have been twenty-one districts hitherto, including Westland; now there are to be twentyeight, formed by the following changes The only metropolitan district which has suffered division is the Avon, now formed into two, the Eiccarton and Papanui, each having two members while the Avon had four. The amount of representation therefore remains the same. A second new district is formed out of the northern part of Sefton, by making a district, conterminous with the Canterbury portion of Cheviot, a new electorate, to be named Waipara. A third district is the Selwyn, which ia almost identical with that of the same name for the House of Representatives ; but the common boundary between it and Biccarton (or Avon) is not quite the same in one case as in the other. The provincial division follows a laid-out road; the,J general, a meridian line. We may mention here that a meridian boundary is still to be kept in use between the Hangiora and Oxford districts, but the line has been changed to the eastward by the distance between trig, poles 30 and 29 on the south bank of the Waimakariri. We fail to see nny object in this change, inasmuch as it is not needed to harmonise with any general electoral division. A fourth new district is formed round the town of Timaru, stretching from the Opihi to the Pareora, and is so contrived as to make, with the town of Timaru and Geraldine, almost the Timaru general electoral district. It is appropriately named Setidown. A fifth district has been cut out of Waitangi by taking a slice along the sea coast from the Pareora to Otago, and is called Wt»imate. And the sixth and seventh districts which have been added are the tdWns of Hokitika and Q-rey-mouth. The remainder of Westland continues as it was, with two members. Hokitika is to have two to herself, and G-reymouth one. We shall thus have five Goldfielda members. Two—

those for Weatland—will be elective upon the mixed franchise of miners' rights and property qualification. The three for Hokitika and Greymouth— both towns, we presume, being withdrawn from the Goldfields, or about to be so—will be returnable by registered voters alone. We point this out as a possible source of trouble. These towns are not yet sold by the Crown ; no individual, therefore, can set up a title which can qualify him for a vote within either town. Even if the inhabitants could vote, a special registration would be required between this time and the elections, for there is no roll or electoral list now in existence. We fear, therefore, that unless these towns are thrown back into the Goldfields, and thereby brought within 'the meaning of the Miners Representation Act,the fatality of last election will be reversed, with no less mortification to all concerned. There may be candidates in abundance, but no electors. We may observe that the provisions of the Ordinance relative to the G-oldfield representation will expire at the end of 1867.