THE NEW ELECTORATE.

Waikato Independent, Volume V, Issue 323, 12 January 1907, Page 5

THE NEW ELECTORATE.

(TO THE EDITOR.) Sir, —On several occasions of late the position of Cambridge in the new electorate of Tauranga has occupied a place in your columns. It would appear that in some minds a feeling of dismay has been created at being, as it were, out in the cold through an apparent lack of community of interest, as between Cambridge and the rest of the electorate. The inland borough of Cambridge on the one hand and the far away seaport of Tauranga on the other certainly share very little of mutual interest, more especially as Tauranga County is only connected with the Piako County and Cambridge by the roughest of mountain tracks. The whole of the Piako County, including Te Aroha, is situate within the new electorate, and no one can reasonably affirm that the community of interest of those places is not similar to and continuous with that of Cambridge quite as much as the Waikato. Although the Representation Commissioners adjust the boundaries on a population basis, they seem to have quite ignored this important aspect—giving a name to the electorate. Why Tauranga? The whole of the County and Borough of Tauranga, by the last census, numbered 8,046, while the population of Piako County alone numbers 3,761, and with Te Aroha added makes 4,870. Cambridge Borough, with its population of 1244 (which is 197 more than that of the Borough of Tauranga), is practically on the border of the Piako County. Hence it is seen that the Piako County, Te Aroha and Cambridge constitute more than double the population of both the County and Borough of Tauranga together. In view of the above figures the people of Piako have a fair claim to have the name of the new electorate amended to “ Piako,” and at the same time the Cambridge people should move to have the central polling place in their town, or at any rate not further away than Te Aroha.—l am, etc., Onlooker,