THE ELECTORAL “ QUOTA.”

New Zealand Mail, Issue 906, 12 July 1889, Page 23

THE ELECTORAL “ QUOTA.”

There seems to be a good deal of confusion outside Parliament about the electoral “quota,” which just now is causing so much

heart-burning inside the House, and which is setting the town and country members so seriously at loggerheads. It is asserted, for instance, that the increased allowance to country districts “ was never thought of till lately.” This is a mistake. An allowance of 25 per cent. to the country districts was the declared and accepted principle upon which Sir John Hall’s Representation Act of 1881 was based, and it was only by Sir Robert Stout’s Act of 1887 that the “quota” was reduced to 18 per cent. The Government’s proposal that the allowance should be 25 per cent, is therefore simply an attempt to restore the status qxio ante , which was disturbed by the Act of 1887, and it involves no new or recent innovation. That a wide difference exists between the conditions of the town and country electorates, not necessarily as to intelligence, but as to facilities of meeting and combining and canvassing, is self-evident. There are several electorates which take a member ■or candidate several weeks to travel over, while a town electorate can be quickly and easily visited, and the electors can readily meet and combine as they may find desirable. While, however, we recognise that some allowance would be equitable, we regard the demand of 33£ per cent, as excessive; but as the country members are resolved to insist upon it, and command a large majority in the House and in the country, resistance will probably bo hopeless. The Hare system would obviate all this trouble.