PUBLIC MEETING AT OTEPOPO

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1319, 29 December 1880, Page 2

PUBLIC MEETING AT OTEPOPO

A public meeting was held in the room, Otepopo, last evening, to consideration the proposed the boundaries of the district. Thpre were present, and Mr. James falconer pied the chair. Messrs^Shrimski aria Jones, M.H.R's., nrespnt/ : j The Chairman sajja he had no douw that all present of of the was .to consider tV proposed of the boundaries® the electoral district. Throughout New Zealand a cry had been raisedv by polil ticians and every one concerned"that some electorates were over-represented and others some, districts had representatives to which they, were not entitled, while others entitled to return one member were unrepresented. The Government in consequence proposed to bring in a Bill to readjust the reprp? sentation, and by altering the boundaries give more equitable representation. Representation was to be based upcm population, the numbers in country distrjptg' being, he believed, something like 4000j and in towns 5000. For some time the Waitaki district had returned two members, and for i his part he thought that when the second member was given to the the district should-have been divided and one member given to the towa of Oamaru and another to the country. He believed^- it .owing to their then member *

their representatives had done,- for they; had;-acted fairly on the whole. Last session they had certainly acted impartially, for they had not got anything for either town or country. Mr. Shrimski and Mr. Jones would be able, he had no doubt, to explain how this was when they addressed them ; they would tell them how they had got round the Government and obtained promises. Under the new Representation Bill it was proposed to give one member to the town of Oamaru, another to the district north and west of tKe town down to the Kakanui River, to 'be called the Waitaki District, and to form a third district by adding Palmerston to that part of the present district south of the Kakanm River, to be called the Moeraki District. He found according to the Government estimate that the population of Oamaru was 4927-, of the Waitaki District 4452, and of the Moeraki District 3858. In* including Palmerston in the Moeraki district the Government had committed a great mistake. There was nothing in common between Palmerston and the district north of the Horse Range; their interests were entirely different. They looked to Oamaru as the market town-; it was the outlet for their produce ; and with it they were allied in business. The prosperity of Oamaru meant the prosperity of the farmers, and the sooner the Oamaru breakwater was finished and deep water obtained, the better it would be for the country districts. The direct shipment abroad would give farmers twopence or threepence a bushel more for their grain. If Palmerston was included in the Moeraki district the electors there might be able to swamp their votes and put in a Palmerston man who would take no interest in the Oamaru breakwater or any of the local works on the north of the Horse Range ; and if Otepopo got its man in he could not be expected to take as great an amount of interest in the affairs of Palmerston as he would in those of his own district. They know that members always promised to be fair ; but no matter how fair their promises were they knew that members were naturally inclined to look, most after the interests of the parts with which they were most closely associated. That difficulty might possibly be got over by getting an outsider to represent them, say a man from Dunedin or elsewhere. Such a representative would not be liable to show any particular leaning towards either Palmerston or Otepopo, but if anything cropped up with regard to his own district he would still no doubt have a leaning towards it. He saw that under the proposed redistribution there were thirteen districts in the Middle Island each with a smaller population than that of the proposed Moeraki district. Some of these districts were as low as 2852, while the Moeraki district would have ■ a population of 3858. Even without Palmerston the County of Waitaki was entitled, upon the basis of population, to two membera. If they wrote off 1000 for that part of the proposed Moeraki district south of the Horse Range they found that Waitaki County had 3 papulation of 73X0. This would ! give two constituencies of SG3S, which fully entitled the Qounty to two members. The old boundaries were good ones, and had the Government adhered to them there would not have been any necessity for holding that meeting. The Government should have adhered to the Horse I Range as the southern boundary of the district. They should protest as strongly as possible against the proposed alteration of the boundaries and the inclusion of Palmerston.

The Rev. Mr. Ryley said the matter they were called upon to consider was of great importance to the district, not only in respect to the present, but for many years to come, as if the proposed altera* tion was carried into effect there was no likelihood of a change b@ing made for ten years. Viewing the matter in this light, the meeting was of so great importance to the district, as affecting its prosperity and ' well-being, that he had hoped to have seen a much larger attendanoe. He had hoped to see the heads of all the families in the district present and the room crowded. He was therefore surprised at the somewhat meagre attendance, and he was not sure that it would not be better to postpone the meeting and , ask the people of Hampden, Maheno to meet them and matter. If it went forth that only thirty or forty persons Qovernment would, not attach so much tion that they might to one that had been He fully of the Chairman, before them a was- really nothing in the Otepopo q/nd They were awaVe that for morning train jwas run stqn and Qaunaru, but the found that i/t was no.t paying, , a single individual travelling in its place was /substituted a luggage traM to which carriages wereattaqheß at Hillgrww., This showed thatthere Wal no passenger traffic from Palmerston the north. If JPalmerston were joined cfl to the district, tAe eleotors there . woul® being more numerous, return their onfl representative, and Otepopo would thJfl fore be disfranchised. It was necessary for the electors bestir themselves, Government c^arjes, Jones, Speaker, obtain q, that conclude on. t tho and matter,^ if ago, body^to; the the

towns—Auckland, church, I and Dunedin. In Palmorsijon in the Moeraki they fjlfere probably actuated find a seat for their iraiends. If the carried'jinto effect the settlers find that, instead an advantage from the additional they had been placed at a Referring to the remarks of the | with reference to the promises himself 'and colleague, he said not the time for them to subject. They would the electors shortly and prepared to give every power. It was "certaiuly not to the interest of Otepopo to be joined to Palmerston, and the action of the Government in the matter was most arbitrary. If the settlers humbly submitted to it the day Would not be far distant when they would regret it.

Mr. J ones, M. H. R., said he quite concurred with many of the remarks of those who had addressed the meeting. He thought the settlers had taken a wise step in calling the meeting, and he, in common with others, regretted that there was not a larger attendance. Had a larger meeting been held it 1 would have had such an effect on the Government that they could not have refused to accede to their behest, but if it was found that the settlers displayed coldness about such an important matter the Government would not of course may the slightest attention to their representations. He would certainly not care to refijresent'such a district as that which, tho Cfcoverntnent proposed to construct. One wiould hardly knowhow to act under such circumstancesThere was no community of interest between this district aud Palmeiaton.

Mr. Smythies rose to a point of This he said was a meeting of settlo*s. in Otepopo, and Mr. Jones waa not one of them. He (Mr. Smythies) wanted to> hear some of his neighbors speak upon the question. Mr. Jones might,, if called upon, express his viows or give thoni advice, but he objected to him taking su prominent part in the meeting. The Chairman thought it was desirable: to get a full expression of opinion, and that Mr. Jones should be allowed to proceed with his remarks. Mr. Jones said he thanked Mr. Smythies for the kind manner in which ho had called him to order, but said that when ho became.their representative he did not disfranchise himself, and he held that as an elector he was as much at liberty to express his views upon any matter affecting the interests of the district as any other elector—as even Mr. Smythies. There were many inequalities in the representation of the Colony, and these had been a cause of great complaint. Fom Nelson there were five members, fofl Taranaki three, while the returns for 188ifl gave the total number of voters of;t|fl Nelson districts as 3077, and the districts in Taranaki as He would not be going far instituting comparisons between districts and this district. But not pursue this matter too, wished to hear others But ho was entitled to say reply to some remarks of < He had said that the fairly, and that if they for the Country they for the That marl; he could ever They got nothing, a retrenchment — them by expenditure of publio ! got nothing, and he would who had got anything. If nothing it was because there 'to get, and to have tried to would have been like the breeks off