LOST SEATS.

Wairarapa Age, 9 August 1926, Page 4

LOST SEATS.

SOUTH ISLAND’S HANDICAP. A SUGGESTED REMEDY. (“The Age” Special.—By Telegraph.) WELLINGTON, August 8. — The threatened loss of two seats by the South Island as a consequence of the redistribution following on the population results of the last census has been considered by a committee of South Island Members of Parliament aad its recommendations, which have been agreed to by South Island members an a whole, are to be placed before the Prime Minister next Friday. It is understood that the deputation will suggest that the Government should introduce legislation during the present Parliament by which the existing number of South Island seats; thirty, will be retained, and that electoral justice be done to the North Island by taking the Southern population as the basis for the quota, which would be ascertained by dividing the South Island total population by thirty, this result to be applied to the larger total of the North Island, thus giving the latter an ’increased number of constituencies. It is doubtful if this proposal will meet with acceptance in official circles, as the view understood to be held in that quarter is that the best compromise, if there is an inclination to meet the situation, would be to give greater stability to the electoral position by making the redistribution every ten years, instead of every five years. The deputation will also raise the question of the completion of the South Island Main Trunk Railway and the Buller railway.