REVISION WANTED

Southland Times, Issue 19898, 17 June 1926, Page 8

REVISION WANTED

ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES THE DRIFT TO THE NORTH COMMISSIONERS TO MEET IN NOVEMBER. (Special to the Times.) Auckland, June 16. The necessity for a revision of the electoral boundaries in view of the population changes revealed by the census was discussed by a local authority on electoral representation. He gave it as his opinion based on the requirements of the electoral lav/ and the course followed in past years by the Electoral Commissioners that at least one new seat will have to be allotted to the North Island and that this in all likelihood will be located in the Auckland province. Representation commissioners are to meet in November. Those dealing with the North Island requirements will be a surveyor and the general commissioners of Crown Lands for Auckland and Wellington, the two latter being the civil members of the commission. The South Island commissioners will comprise the Crown Land Commissioners of I Westland, Canterbury and Otago, and Messrs Harman Reeves and Henry Quayne. In determining the size of the boundaries of the electorates the commissioners are required to take the total population figures as disclosed by the latest census, add 28 per cent, to the country quota for rural population and divide the result by the number of seats in the House, namely, 76. This gives the population quota for each seat. This year in view of the swing of the population to the North as indicated clearly in the latest census returns, it is quite possible that an extra seat will have to be given to the North Island and one seat taken away from the South Island. The authority whose opinion was sought was definitely inclined to this view, and he brought up the possibility of the new seat going to the Auckland province. He said he thought that owing to the fact that Ohinemuri had gone “wet” the commissioner might possibly be able to readjust the boundaries of Tauranga, Thames and Ohinemuri electorates in order to give greater community of interest to all concerned. While Ohinemuri was a dry district, he said, continuous constituencies were very irregular because hotels had to be dodged, but more even readjustment can now be made if the commissioners think fit. Te Aroha was a town that was mentioned as probably reverting to Ohinemuri. It was practically certain, he added, that the Auckland City constituencies would remain as they were, but rural districts in the vicinity of Auckland should certainly allow for an additional electorate. This could probably be fitted in between Auckland and Waikato.