WELLINGTON NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1917, Page 1

WELLINGTON NOTES.

Till-: -COUNTRY QUOTA. WHAT IT AIBANS. (Our Special Correspondent) WELLINGTON, Sop. 17. The Prime Minister's promise lo the House of Reps that, before the next General Election it would have an opportunity to discuss the 1 “country quota” has aroused some sort of interest in a: subject which the average member of' Parliament understands as little ns does the average man in the street. The popular idea is that away in the dim and distant past it; was decreed by. a. “Tory” Government that the rural districts, on account of their sparse population and their difficulties of communication, should have a larger share of parliamentary representation than the urban districts, and that no subsequent- Government, whatever its Party colour, lias had sufficient courage to repeal a decree which has had the inevitable, effect of maintaining in (he 'House a majority of country members. The idea: roughly summarises the position, but- the “country quota,” whether for good or for evil, cannot be fairly attributed to any one Parlt. TTS GENESIS. Previous to the passage of the (oral Act, of IRS"" parliament ary representation had been based for some years on population, but subject to the provision that the commissioners who fixed the hoim'daries of the electorates, blight lake into consideration “the

locality of the district and the facility oi- otherwise of access thereto.” In proposing in ISS7 a more precise definition of tin- “country quota” by fixing the advantage given to the rural districts at lo per cent , Sir Robert Stout was careful to explain it was only an expedient to get over a passing difficulty. “Of course,” he 1 said, “as the population of the colony increases this portion of the Bill will be dropped out and thmi representation in New Zealand will be based entirely upon population.” But- Sir Robert went out of office in the same year, and in 1889 and 1890, with Sir Harry Atkinson in power, the “country quota” was raised to 28 per cent, and has remained at that proportion ever since. HOW IT OPERATES. The “country quota” does not give the rural electors any greater voting power, directly, than the urban elector enjoys. One man one vote remains the law of the land. But the country elect votes in a smaller constituency than the urban elector docs and thus ; gets, directly and indirectly, a larger share of representation. The electoral quota, the population required to entitle a district to send a member to the House, is ascertained by dividing the total number of members. At the General Election of 1911, for instance, the total population was 1,008,206, 188,715 being urban population and 519,491 rural population, and after adding 28 per cent to the rural population, the nominal total was 1,153,664. This means that for electoral purposes it was assumed then' were 488,715 people residing in the borough aro-'s-and 664,949 in the country districts.

ITS EFFECT. Tin- electoral quota: was fixed on these figures in round numbers at- 15,180, with the statutory latitude of 100 persons in -the ease of urban electorates and 550 in the case of rural electorates. Tll other words a city district had to produce at least 15,080 living people to secure a member, while a country district might, be required to produce only 11,750 or even fewer, its nominal quota being made up of the country quota and the statutory allowance, as a matter of Tact Kaipnra bad only 11,568 inhabitants when it returned a member t-vix yoa'rs ago, Wsirarnpa 11,5631, Rangitikei 15,52 b, Motueka 11.503, Hiiriiiiui 1.1,441, Selwyn 11,474, Tcmuka 11,575, AY inlaid 11.578, Bruce 1 1,433 and Wallace 1.1,468. At the same time the purely city constituent*; ran from 15.275 in Wellington East, to 15,153 in Auckland Central, and their populations secured nearly one third less representation than they would have obtained if they bad voted in the countrv. THE DEMAND FOR REFORM. This is not the place to discuss the rights or the wrongs of the system' that produces these results, but there obviously is a growing feeling in The House that the position should tie reviewed, if only to ascertain the views of the electors; on the question. When the “country quota” was first proposed it was strongly denounced by Sir James Allen, who was then representing a city constituency in the House, and Dr Newman, and was tolerated only as a necessity of the times by Air Itolloston, Sir John Hall and other big figures in Ll.o political arena of those days. As a result <of the census of last vonr the volume oi the ‘ countiv quota’’will he somewhat reduced by the further movement of population towards the towns, but tire electoral quota will he considerably increased, and if the absent soldiers are taken into account probably will reach 10,300 or even more.