NEW BOUNDARIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26177, 13 June 1946, Page 4

NEW BOUNDARIES

ELECTORAL DISTRICTS ADJUSTMENTS LIKELY The final report of the Electoral Boundaries Commission, which is to be made public next week, is likely to embody some significant changes as a result of the objections’ which the commission has heard since its original report was presented. This is the opinion in interested quarters in the city and province, and it is considered probable that some of the more striking geographical features of the commission's first decisions will be modified. So far as the Dunedin seats are concerned, it is being freely predicted that Port Chalmers will go into the Oamaru eletcorate which will involve changing the name of the Chalmers seat, since with the borough removed, the electorate will have no identity with that name. This will naturally call for a readjustment of the southern boundary of the electorate, forcing it further into the city, with a consequent movement of Dunedin City into Mornington, which will probably now take in the Green Island Borough, There is also talk of a possibility of the city seats retaining their old names which, it is felt, distinguished them much better than the suburban titles recommended by the commission.

It is also considered likely that there will be some readjustment as between the Central Otago and Clutha electorates. Under the commission’s original proposals the Clutha seat came right up to the Caversham tunnel, and the towns of Gore and Mataura were placed in Central Otago, but it is now thought that the area north from Milton to Green Island may be transferred to Central Otago, and Gore and Mataura included in Clutha. Strong representations were made by the people of the district against the proposed transfer of the Catlins district from Clutha to Awarua, but it is not considered likely that this objection will be met in the final report of the commission.