OHINEMURI ELECTORATE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5157, 27 July 1927, Page 2

OHINEMURI ELECTORATE.

RECENT FINDING OF COMMISSION.

CRITICISM BY MR. SAMUEL M.P.

In addressing the House on July 8 Mr A. M. Samuel, M.P. for Ohinemuri, speaking of the elimination of his electorate said :—

“I would like to make a brief reference to the Legislature Act, which has enabled the Boundary Commissioners to wipe out my electorate. I could not let an occasion of this kind pass without making mention of this

matter, though I do not refer to it in any spirit of pique. In my opinion the people Avho are going to suffer by this action of the Boundary Commissioners are the people of Ohinemuri. I do not wish to appear egotistical in regard to this matter. I think it is their loss.; as a. matter of fact a great number of them have told me so, and I think they are right. I would like to point out several anomalies created by the Commissioners when fixing the new boundaries affecting the Ohinemuri district, part of which is to go into the Waikato electorate and part intot Thames. I trust that the Boundary Commissioners, before reaching their final verdict, will tako into consideration .these facts, and, after reviewing the whole position, revise their decision.

“First, there is the question of the Waihi Borough, which it is pro, posed to include in the electorate of Thames, but the Waihi beach portion of tlie borough is to be in Tauranga. Tills is certainly an anomaly. There is no community of interest between the two places—Waihi Beach and

Tauranga. “Theti there- is: the case of Waikino. which might almost be regarded as portion of Waihi town. It is certainly part of the Waihi gold-mining area; the mining is done in Waihi, while the crushing of the ore is done in Waikino. They are on the same main road, and yet that township is to be put into Tauranga. The same ma.y be staid of the Waihi Plains, which adjoin Waihi Township, and also of Karangahake, another part of the mining district and a connecting-link between Waihi, Waikino, and Paeroa. Between these places and Taura.nga, especially Waikino and Karangahake, there is a topographical barrier of five or six chains of impassible mountains, and there can therefore be no community of interest between the places.

“Another argument why these areas should be in the one electorate is that they are all in the Hauraki goldmining district. If the Boundary Commissioners had taken into considciation the topographical and geological features, together with that of community of interest, they must have included these places in the Thames electorate, or, bettter still, in the Ohinemuri electorate. Of course I am sorj-y that they have wiped out Ohinemuri, but I am not going to cavil at their finding; it is their job to fix the boundariesi, they are free from political control, and they carry out their work in what they believe to be the fairest wqy.