MR. MACKAY'S SCHEME OF NATIVE REPRESENTATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 954, 19 November 1879, Page 2

MR. MACKAY'S SCHEME OF NATIVE REPRESENTATION.

The Wellington correspondent of the Wangauui Herald says : — Commissioner James Mackay — whether at the request of the Government or not, I cannot say — has lodged with the Hon. the Minister for Native Affairs a scheme by which two native members will be added to the four at present holding seats m the House of Representatives, and at the same time will secure more uniformity of representation, both on the basis of population and of community of tribal interests. The scheme has not yet been discussed m Cabinet, but I am m a position to lay it before your readers somewhat m detail. If the reader will take a map of the North Island and draw a straight line from the mouth of the Waikato river through the watershed of the Manukau and Waitemata to the West Coast, all North of that line will be the Northern Electoral District, embracing the Ngapuhi, Karawa, and Ngatihatua tribes. A line starting from the mouth of the Mokau River, and passing with a bold sweep below Lake Taupo and up to Katikati, will embrace between the Southern boundry of the Northern district the North-western district, containing the Waikato, Thames, and Ngatamaniopoto tribes. Another line drawn from Lake Taupo with a similar southerly sweep, and then up to Whanapaora, will define the Northeastern district, inhabited by the Arawa, Uriwere, Ngateranga, and East Coast Ngatirwa. Then a line drawn straight down from Lake Taupo to Wellington will divide the South-western from the Southern eastern districts — the first mentioned peopled by the West Coast Ngatiawa, Taranaki, Ngatioamana, Ngamuru, Whanganui, and Rangitane ; and the latter by the Ngatikahungu and Ngatiporou. All, with the exception of the South-western district, will form distinct Maori Electoral Distriots, each returning a member. To the Southwestern district — that m which you are more particularly interested — will be added to the western portion of the Southlsland, divided from the remainder by a line drawn from Rocks Point, on the West Coast, to the mouth of the Clarence River, on the East Coast. All south of this line will form a sixth Electoral District, also returning one native member. The scheme appears to me just to the native, and alcogather a feasible one.