PARLTAMENTARY REPRESENTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 14503, 15 October 1907, Page 6

PARLTAMENTARY REPRESENTATION.

It seems to us that the gentlemen, who went to the Premier yesterday morning with a scheme for the settlement of the representation question quite tailed to make out a logical case for an increase of the number of members of the House of Representatives. The prime"merer in this agitation has been Air Thomas Mackenzie, who represents on© of the constituencies that has been extinguished by tie Commie*

sioners. Mr Mackenzie is a member whom no one would like to see deprived of hie seat, and we have little doubt that when Waikouaiti disappears he will be able to persuade some other constituency to accept his services. Mr Mackenzie’s proposal is that instead of dropping three constituencies from the South Island and adding three to the North, the adjustment of representation rendered necessary by the movement of population should be made by giving the North two additional members and leaving tho South with thirtyeignt. The principle of the scheme, if it has a principle, is that an additional seat should be created in the House of Representatives for every addition of 12,000 to the population. Mr Mackenzie argues that because we had 95 representatives when our population was only 500,000 we should not object to having 82 with a population of approximately a million. But of course the fact that we had more members than we needed in 1881 is not an argument for having more members than we need in 1908. Mr Seddon avoided a difficulty similar to the present one by increasing the number of seats, and Mr Mackenzie would postpone the day of reckoning by the same method. But there is really no necessity for increasing the cost of governing tho country in that way. The reduction would have to he made sooner or later, and it is better to have it now than, to postpone it. The South Island has not progressed as the North Island hae progressed, and it cannot complain of tho Joss of seats. As a matter of fact it has not complained. This agitation is entirely a parliamentary one, and it finds no support in the country. Tho people of some districts will suffer inconvenience perhaps, but the complaints that have reached us have been concerned mainly with the manner in which th© Representation Commissioners Have carried out the duty of defining the boundaries. If th© Commissioners had taken tho trouble to consult local feeling and to invite the advice of chairmen of local bodies and others there would have been far less dissatisfaction with its work. Sir Joseph Ward’s reply to the deputation was not very encouraging, and if the Cabinet has regard to the state of public feeling, it will allow tho recommendations of the Commissioners to stand. There is certainly no popular demand for an increase in the number of members of tho House.