THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1511, 19 March 1887, Page 2

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Addressing hi* constituents at Queenstown on Thursday. Mr Fergus, M.H.R. for the Lakes, said :— There were too many members In the House, And there was too rauoh talking and too nlioh time wasted m discussion. He belevad if we had 75 or 80 members the work would be done better, and the tone and ptrsonel of tho House would be raised. The population of the colony last Marcb was 673,480, which gave one member for every 6302 people, or one member for every 1437 eleotore, which meant one member to 335 ft males m the colony. Hs had stipulated to his party that facilities should be given him m moving that the nutnb6r of members should be reduced to 75 or 80, and a great many approved it, though some thought it could not bo carried. Jie would heartily support anyone who would move m the matter, and if anyone, elae did not, i he would himself move for the reduction, it was simply absurd that a small colony like New Zjalao<J nh >uld ba sending every year something like 150 men up 'to Wellington to guide its destinies. One member to every 8000 of Ihe population would he thought, be ample. Another change he would like to see was the mapping out of the whole colony into b x large eleotoral diatriots, eaoh cf theso to return, i ay, 10 mou to the Legislative Assembly en the Hare system, or some modiOcabion thereof. He believed they would get better men then, that their legislation would be better, and that there would be leas politioal long-rolling and scrambling for the loaves and the fiihea, with the re* suit that fewer political trim mem would ba sent into power — (Applause.) He was «uro it would be distinctly sdvan> tageous to the colony if thiß were done. I