TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 10th MAY, 1944 THE COUNTRY QUOTA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 68, Issue 5941, 10 May 1944, Page 2

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 10th MAY, 1944 THE COUNTRY QUOTA

POLITICAL speculation is being made that the Government will amend what is popularly known as the country quota, and more than a hint of this Intention has been given. To the average elector this appears as the arrangement of an electoral device which has been used and will again be employed to swing the balance under an accepted system of party government. Actually, however, the country quota dates back to the earliest days of parliamentary government in New Zealand, and is intended as a measure for stable government. It is obvious that the grouping of a considerable population in metropolitan areas would tend to create a centrolised influence over the political life not comparable with the more scattered rural areas. The division of the Dominion into seventy-six European electorates may be regarded as a constitutional decision, and it is at the point of defining the boundaries of these electorates that the country quota operates. Without such a quota the procedure would have to divide the total electoral population by sev-enty-six and then define the boundaries of the electorates accordingly. But such a division would have the serious disadvantage of reducing in area the already compact metropolitan electorates and of enlarging the already widely-scattered country electorates. This discrepancy in size of electorate and spread of representative responsibility applies now under a quota which gives 100 rural voters the same importance .as 128 town or city voters in determining the electoral boundaries, and any .recall of the quota calculation would aggravate such a situation, and it would develop a cumulative disadvantage. As the Government Statistician says, “ It is noticeable that in 1901 29 per cent of the Dominion’s population were in towns of 10,000 inhabitants and over; by 1936 the proportion had become 47 per cent.” With, therefore, a steady drift toward urban aggregation, the abolition of the country quota would very seriously throw out of balance the whole basis of electoral representation. Indeed, if any change is attempted, it should be to increase the basis of quota calculation so as to off-set the aggregation of population in' the larger centres, for it is not unlikely that the readjustment of electoral boundaries after the next census-taking will increase already large country constituencies. The fear that any tampering with the quota is a political device for party advantage is not as well founded as may be made to appear. The theoretic assumption is, of course, a sharp division of political thought in the respective urban and rural electorates, and although it may be true in the extreme of circumstances, the opposite can, on balance, be the result. At the last elections in ten electorates the majority of votes was less than 300, and many of these were in suburban electorates or in electorates not affected largely by rural influ-

ences. There can be no guarantee, therefore ,that party preferences would arise except in cases where past Voting indicates a definite partisan trend; the real effect would be, however, a very serious increase in size of the rural electorate; and it is in this respect that the real difficulty arises. The urban electorate is so situate that an elected representative maintains close and regular contact with all electors, who are thus enabled to exert an influence over the political life of the country. By enlarging the rural electorate the parliamentary member would have less opportunity for keeping in contact with the widely-scattered district, and for that reason the principles of a direct representation would be adversely affected. It is admissible, surely, that distance is an inescapable disadvantage in the rural constituency, and there can be no justification in any attempt to make such disadvantages more pronounced. It is difficult to imagine that the Government would seriously regard the hints and the threats which have been given recently. Certainly there is no occasion for any disturbance of the electoral balance, and just as surely a political future cannot ignore an economic future which, when all is said and done, is based in New Zealand upon the rural electorate. Despite all the speculation and the forecasts, the threats and the warnings, the GovD rnment will be more likelv to have regard to the serious aspects of what can so verv easilv arise in any disturbance of the country quota.