VOTES AND MEMBERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 124, 27 May 1937, Page 17

VOTES AND MEMBERS

THE COUNTRY QUOTA

ELECTORAL ADJUSTMENTS

(By A. H. Carman.) The Boundary Commissioners recently appointed will shortly be making known their decisions with regard to "the readjustment of boundaries of the various constituencies consequent upon the movement of population. Normally this adjustment takes place every five years, but the postponement of the Census in 1931 has resulted in a ten-year period between the alterations of electorates. It was during the premiership of Sir -Harry Atkinson, in the years 1887-89, that among several amending electoral Acts provision was made foe placing the system of representation upon a strict population1 basis.' ".■ The number of, seats was fixed at 70 (later increased to 76), but before dividing the total population by the number of seats, provision was made for- a country quota. "The effect of this innovation is that to the population of townships of under 1000 people and to the country districts, 28 per cent: is added. This total of actual population plus country quota i~s .then divided by the number of seats, and the average required for each electorate is thus arrived'l,., at. Other amendments passud in 1889 provided for the principle of "one man, one vote," instead of the previous property qualification, whereby, a ■ man might vote in as • many •'electorates as he owned property in. Later, in 1893, the franchise was; extended to women, but the law today is very little different from that of 40 odd years ago. Under strict democratic principles, the country quota is unfair,- as it creates an -advantage to the country interests where such might conflict with those of the towns^ For instance there are at, present 41 seats which might be termed "country seats"'and 35 town seats, a majority on a straightout vote of 6 for the country. But is' this a true position? Let us give to each member one vote for each 1000 electors on the roll and we then find that the 41 country members "would have 456 vofes, and the 35 town members 503 votes, or to be exact, the 41 country members represent 433,769 electors, and the 3fi town members re» present 486,032 electors. Such is the result of the country quota, and it might have quite a considerable effect on such matters as, say, the exchange rate on London, where the interests of town and country conflict. . : To return to the Boundary Commissioners and their task; however, wd find that since 1890 ■• there has been a steady trend of population 'to tha North Island. The figures are'intetw ■ •', ■ : \■. v . :.':-

•Number of members increased from 70 to 78. Under any ,, system of equal representation such a ■ position cannot ba obviated except by fixing the South Island representation at, say, 30 seats, and increasing the number of North Island seats as required, but without any loss i/to .thel.Soutlu ■ , That ; is, .the . total number of,seats .might rise above 76. The effect of the gap of ten years between adjustments is seen by comparing the numbers on the roll in certain of the electorates. This also shows the trend of population. At the last election, in December, 1935, thera we're 919,798 electors in the Dominion. This gives us, if there were no country quota, an average of 12,102 electors' for each of the 76 seats. Actually at present there are 33 seats above this average and 43 below. Of the 43 electorates under the average, the smallest are: .i "' .'' ' ,'.'■*,■ ~ • :'■: '■'■■;' ■ ' ' Electors. Below.' Watmadno .',,.. 8,871) S-,232 Bay of Plenty . 9,108 2,994 . Waipawa . .. 9,209 1 2,893 Wattakl 9,213 ": 2,889 Egmont .....'... 9,236 ' 2,860 Manawatu ■......• 9,327 2,775 Pahlatua 9,455, 2,647 Awarua 9,531 . 2,568 On the other hand we find that of the 33 electorates above the p.veraga, the biggest are: ' ' Electors. ' Abovs. Wellington Sub. . 18,372 - 6.270 Hutt .... 17,788 ' 5,686 Wellington. East 17,508.. .:. . 5,406 ISoskllt .... 16,242 4,140 Parnell _■ ..• .16,17.6 t 4,074 :' That is, Wellington Suburbs has twice as many electors as Waimarino or Bay of Plenty, which means that every elector in the latter two districts has two votes to the one vote of the Wellington Suburbs elector.This is giving votes'to "cattle and sheep,* as.the country quota.has been called, with a vengeance. ». . The numbers of electors, and ..setfta in each island at the last General Election were: ■ ■•' "• - Seats. • Electors; I North Island .... 47 579,849 ' . South Island . 29 339,949 If a strict adjustment were to b9 made on the basis of actual population, .we would get ; the following position:—' Auckland city with 11 seats has 153.89T electors, which on an average of 12,102 electors per seat would give Auckland two more seats; Wellington city with 6 seats has 95,819 electors, which would be increased to 8 seats; Christchurch city with 6 seats and 82,607 electors would become entitled to t seats, whilst Dunedin city with-5 seats and 60,547 electors would remain as at present.

•Seats Total. North iSouth Tear. Population. Island. Island. 1890 .... 573,357 30 .. 40 1891 .... 626,359 31 39 1896 .... 703,119 34 36 1901 .... ,772,504 38 3S« '. 1906 .... 888,376 41 35 1911 .... 1,008,206 42 '34 1918 .... 1,142,081 45 S 31 1921 .... 1,218,913 46 30 1B20 1.344.469 47 . 29