The Chronicle. PUBLISHED, AUGUST 28, 1911. MONDAY. AUGUST 28, 1911. OTAKI IS "SETTLED."

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 August 1911, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED, AUGUST 28, 1911. MONDAY. AUGUST 28, 1911. OTAKI IS "SETTLED."

Lkvin's rights to official consideration as fclio leading town of w 1 mi( is known liv official misnomer as "Otaki Electorate," have been pitblicly advocated of late (in these fiolumns and elsewhere). Whether there will bo oarlv tangible results I'roui the movement remains to be Isoem ; bvit of this much wo nra.v be j sure, that Levin's act in asking for i its rights already ha.s aroused strong | protects from its neighbouring towns of Otaki and Fox toil. in our last issue wo gave examples of these, protests; to-day wo propose- to reply ,to them. The Otaki .Mail tells its readers tliat it fails to see wlint good can be done by making the change suggested (i.e., a tmnsfer of i the headquarters of the Parliiainejitary returning officer from Otaki to Levin); and it concluded by .saying that '"a transfer of headquarters from Otaki to Levin would serve no good other than gratifying the wishes of .a few of our Levin friends who occasionally allow their zeal to | exceed the bounds of d'iserotiou." j At this stage it will be fitting if we j enumerate some decided advantages 'which Levin will afford wihon ap- | pointed to be headquarters. To i begin with, it is within a dozen miles iol both Koxton and Shannon, which towns between them hold over two ; thousand people- Add to this the sixteen hundred, and odd population of Levin .borough —exclusive of several hundreds more who resido on j this borough's outskirts- and it will be seou that in the comparatively restricted area of the- northern end of the electorate a prepondonui.ee of the voting power of the whole of the constituency i.s to be found.

licvin itself holds a larger number of electors than any oblmr loavii in Homwheniia (.'oanty : .addo<l to j wli'bh is the important fact that Levin i.s flic only town in the whole electorate which possesses a. daily newspaper and a Press Association representative. In Uie stirring times of every General Election, the whole of \ew Zealand is interested in every election result, and -it is the duty of tho electoral authorities to see that every facility i.s given for having these results ascertained and announced at the natural headCjiiarters, and telegraphed immediately to other centres. Levin "is ,, the natural head quarters of tho HoroW'honun. County, but tiro comparatively short time in which she has grown from pristine insignificance into tho town of premier importance which sho now is has left her merits unrecognised in official circles. Twenty-five years •ago. whom the- population of Levin consisted chiefly of wekas. kuris and ■other unfranchisod bipeds and ouadrupeds, Otaki was a settled, nro-mature'y-grey town possessed of various privileges and riglits. Bu't Otaki to-day i.s "settled" in a, sen so not defined in any British dictionary; and by reason of h<er shrunken importance she. eventually must see 'her one-time privileges passed over to her sturdier rival. It is an old and a true saying that "youth will bo served," and tho aphorism is as true- of a, community as of an individual. Levin, .as the principal town and borougih of the electorate, is emtitled to be declared tho headmra.rters for electoral purposes. Fntil tins month. Levin was the only borough in the electorate; but since the change of boniularies was made. Lesion has become a companion borough. We notico that for this reason, and by vintuc of Foxton possessing six or seven more ssouls than Levin docs, the Foxton Herald is spnrring-on its borough council" to claim for Foxton the right to .bo declared official electoral headquarters. There are, Jitowovor, .several rc-asons to he urged against such a, step, hi-the first place, it is open to argument if Foxton and its precincts possess within two hundred of the population that Levin and district does. And, srcon-lly. the tacking■on of Koxton to this electorate was so fortuitous .a circumstance that there can bo no surety of the sandbank borough's continuance within j these bounds after tho next cr e ij©,-a.I j election. Foxton, fo put tho case Mimtly, is and long has been a political shuttlecock which the electoral j commissioners drive backwards and forwards in their never-ending Same : and we shall not be suit prwwl to see it (some day) linked •" with Kapiti Island, Hokio Beach tho Krench Pass, and Manawatu Heads jw, the chief component part

<ioubt, quarters; and the ann'ouncpmoiit will ™ ""Ued may be* depended upon t<) awaken tilio Kapiti Island week-end excursionists, tlic great grey 1C long French Pass, and other out-of-the way suffragists of that nebulous electorate.