The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 340, 21 October 1879, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21.

A "highly interesting paper'hAS-'justj ; b"eeit>laid on the table of the two jtlpuses| It is entitled a "Return, "athift male population of eaph electbralj district in the colony of Njw; Zealand,"the number of electors on the electoral rolls, the number who recorded their votes at the last general election, and polled,- for.the sitting members." • * The first thing that strikes us' on examining this remarkable document is the enormous disparity, and absence of all proportion between the numbers in the first two columns, viz.—the " male population over 21 years of- age," and " electors on 1879 roll." Taking the total of these two columns, we find them to amou»t to 116,008! and 82,271 respectivly, that is the electors amount to about 70 per cent of th adult male population. This, taking all circumstances into consideration appears what might be expected, taking into considei-ation those not entitled to the'franchise, and those too careless to register on the one one hand,, and the absentees and those wrongfully on electoral rolls on the other. But when we come to' look at.individual cases, we find.several, instances which are. hard to explain, beginning with tne Province of Auckland we find thai City East contains 1131 adult males, and 1,038 electors, while City West oui of a population of' 2,248 manages tc produce an electoral roll of 2,390. WhiU pondering tiver this apparent anomaly we find that as a phenomenon it is en tirely cast into the shade by the Thames which, possessing a population of 3,49£ adult males/ nevertheless furnishes 4,446 electors, and this again is eclipsed bj Newton, where the numbers are—population, 1,378 ; electors, 2,224. Of course these shadowy electors wh( do not belong to the population in on< part of the colony have to be compensated for elsewhere, and accordingly we find that Wellington, with 5,048 aduli males, possesses only 2,721 electors. Ir Christchurch the numbers are 6,129 anc 4,2j12; in Dunedin, 6,018 and 3,865 respectively. There are even greatei discrepancies than these. Thus we fine that Grey Valley has 4,218 adults anc ■ electors ; Waisaki, out : o only show 1,723 on* the roll Gladstone shows 2,677 and 826 respec-

tiv.ely, and Wallace has. 444-electors out of 1,169 adults.

There is no information given as to to how the numbers under the heading " Total votes : recorded " have been arrived at. Of course in those constituencies where only one member was to be elected, it wquld be got at by taking the sum of the Votes given to the various candidates, though even here we are somewhat staggered to find that in Invercargillvthe successful candidate polled 305 votes, while the total number recorded was 618, the inference being that the defeated candidate scored 313, or eight more than his antagonist. But passing this over, it is not so easy to see how the number of votes recorded in constituencies returning two and three members has been arrived at. In Ohristchurch, for example, an elector could vote for one, two, or three candidates at his pleasure. It is difficult to see iv such a case how the the- number who voted is to be ascertained with accuracy. The number of electors varying so considerably in different localities, it is not surprising to find that the number of votes necessary to secure a seat has a very considerable range. Putting the non-contested elections on one side, we find that the greatest number of votes recorded for any one candidate is the 1,315 polled in Christchurch for Sir G. Grey. Next come his two colleagues, Messrs Andrews and Stevens, with 1,250 each. Those who have polled over 1000 votes are Messrs Levin (Wellington), Dick and Oliver (Dunedin), Reeves and Masters (Grey Valley)

xveeves auu musiieis y aimj j, Wallis and Hurst (Auckland West). At the other end of the scale we find that Mr A. J. Richmond enjoys a seat for Nelson Suburbs by virtue ot having found favor in the eyes of 112 electors, 137 electors of Cheviot have sent Mr Saunders to legislate for us, Mr Hirst is the chosen of 166 men of Wallace, Mr Mason polled 167 at the Hutt, and Mr Allwright 192 in Lyttelton. Altogether the paper before us offers some striking examples of the anomalies of our present electoral system, and the information contained in it should be exceedingly valuable to those who wish to see steps taken to cancel these anomalies.