SEATS THAT ARE TO DISAPPEAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 78, 4 April 1946, Page 5

SEATS THAT ARE TO DISAPPEAR

RAGLAN STILL ON THE LIST FEWER MEMBERS FOR TARANAKI. When the Commission sat to alter the electoral boundaries public conjecture had it that one o£ the Taranaki .‘eats would disapj I ar. The general feeling was that r-atea (Mr. W. A. Sheat, National) or Egmont (Mr. E. B. Corbett, National) would be the unlucky one, but Stratford; which is represented by Mr. W. J. Polson, deputy leader of the Opposition, wu the electorate selected for oblivion. Masterton, which likewise is to disappear as an electoral area, is also held in. tile National Party interests, the representative being Mr G. A. Mackley. Similarly, the Waipawa electorate has a Nationalist majority, Mr. C. G. E. Harker being I he repre entative. There are 32 new electorates which will be created if the Commission's findings are ratified. They are as follows : NORTH ISLAND. Hobson, Rodney, Waitakere, North Shore, Ponsonby. Auckland City, Parnell, Archhill, Mount Albert, Piako, Petone, Onslow, Karori, Wellington City, Brooklyn, Mount Victoria, Island Bay, Miramar, Hastings. SOUTH ISLAND. Selwyn, Christchurch City, Sydenham, Saint Alban’s, FenJai on, Ashburton. Waimate. Chalmers, St. Kiida, Mornirgton, Dunedin City, Invercargill. The complete list of electorate! which will cease to exist as such when the Commission’s recommendations are adopted are adopted are:—Auckland Central, East, Suburbs and West, Bay of Islands, Christchurch East, North and South, Dunedin North, South, East and West, Kaiapoi, Kaipara, Masterton, Mataura, Mid-Can-terbury, Rotorua, Stratford, Temuka, Thames, Waipawa, Waitemata, Wellington North, South, East, West and Suburbs, Marsden, Waitaki, Motueka. Of these 32 seats 18 at the present time ar e held by Labour members anc 14 by National Party interests. Raglan is one of the seats which will continue under its present name, although with some alterations to its boundaries. The Raglan electorate is one of those recently created, being first contested for in 1938. It became a Labour seat then by a majority of 608 for lite Hon. W. Lee Martin, and was retained for the party by the late Mr. R. Coulter, who held it by a margin of 103 votes. Subsequent to the latter's death. National Party supporters outvoted the Government at the recent by-election, with Mr. N. Hallyburton Johnstone as the present member.