The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, February 21st.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 449, 21 February 1857, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, February 21st.

As the coming Session of the Provincial Council of this province will in all probability be its last, it may be useful to refer now to the steps which will follow its dissolution and precede the formation of its successor. The Council would expire in the "natural course of things in four years from the day when the writs for its election were retured to the Governor; some day, then, at the end of September, or the beginning of October, would be the exact dale of expiration, and the elections for the new Council wonld probably not take place before the end of the year. In case, however, the course was adopted, which has many reasons to recommend it, of dissolving the Council previous to the completion of the four years, any day before that time and after the end of the ensuing session might be fixed upon. Whether the Council be dissolved by act of the Governor or expire from natural causes, it will be replaced, not according to the original proclamation by Sir George Grey, but under the provisions of the

" Council Extension Ordinance, Sess. 111, No. 1," which provides shortly as follows : —The province is to be divided into seven districts. The town of Christchurch, ■returning'five members, the town of Lyttelton, five members, the Kaiapoi District, one member, the North Christchurch District, four members, the South Christchurch District, four members, the Lyttelton District, three members, and the ;Akarpa District, two members. The Superintendent is to appoint a Returning- Officer in each district, and to name a day before which claims to vote for each and all are to be delivered at .places indicated by the Returning O_fßcer. The Electoral Roll for each District is to be made up in the usual manner, within two months after such, notification. A Revising Officer, with power to take evidence onoath, is to be appointed for each district by the Judge of the Supreme Court, to perform the duties, of revision &c, which are are now performed by a bench of Justices. So far the ordinance. Electoral Rolls, then, being formed for all the districts into which the province is divided as soon as possible after the dis-^ solution of Council Number One (at whatever time of the year that may happen), Council Number Two is to be elected by those districts "under writs from the Governor. The machinery is simple enough ; offering no : difficulties unless to an elector who may .be puzzled to find out to which District he ought to belong. The boundaries will doubtless be published with clear definitions at the proper time. With regard to the material part of the ordinance, there are some points of importance which we think ought to obtain consideration at the hands of the Council in the coming Session. The population and importance of the districts have altered very much since this ordinance was passed; and, consequently, the electors in some are quite disprbportioned to the number of representatives given to them. The Roll compiled in April last, though full of errors, gives a nearer approach to the comparative numbers than could have been obtainedtwo^,,, years before. , The table below may bjptaken as the resul*. of the division of the province according to the ordinance, carefully compiled from the Roll of last year. The Christchurch Country District, as it now exists, it will be seen is divided into four. Though the numbers of each division may turn out to be somewhat greater, from the circumstance of many votes being doubled, and by the addition of new names,, the proportion will naturally remain nearly the same. The other districts have no alterations of any consequence. The names of persons dead or at such a distance as to preclude the possibility of voting have been struck out; other doubtful names which would not be repeated in a new roll are taken in the calculation as occurring in pretty fair proportion throughout., The account stands as follows ; the last column showing the number of voters to each membei* :—

These figures, though, of course not perfectly correct, may be taken as indicating the truth pretty nearly. The division as shown above is scarcely more fair than the present one, by which; there is a representative for every "thirty electors in Akaroa, one for every thirty-five in Lyttelton and Christ-cl-urch, and only one for every seventyseven in the country. The average representation by the above calculation is one to nearly fifty electors, and this, if carried out

as nearly as possible, would give to each of the towns four members, five to the southern district, three each to the northern district, Kaiapoi and Akafba, and two to the district of Lyttelton. We see no means at present of arriving at more correct data for calculation, nor any reason to doubt the conclusions to which these data bring us. It is a fair subject for the attention of the council; if change is desirable, the coming, session presents the opportunity for it, for neglect would render, the evil still more serious during the ensuing Council, seeing that the uneven growth of the past two years will of course continue in the same direction, increasing year by year. So far as we have gone very little change in the wording of the ordinance is required, only one clause containing a , reference to the number of members. There are other changes in the matter of the law which it strikes us might be made with advantage, the creation of a pastoral district for instance ; but the discussion of their merits would require more, space than we can at present afford. We will merely say a few words concerning the nomenclature in use, which is certainly susceptible of improvement. Terms are surely not so scarce in the English language that a single one must be used in a vast variety of significations for want of a substitute, and we do not see, therefore, why " district," a word employed in numerous other senses (and not a nice word, either, by association), should be pitched upon as the name of an electoral division. A " shire "is a well-known subdivision of a kingdom or province, and the term is used in that sense and in no other. Again, Kaiapoi, Akaroa, and the rest are very good names, but they hare two meanings or more. Kaiapoi was first the old pah, then a new pah, then gave its name to the wood, tvhich had a very respectable name of its own before, then was pressed into the service of an English town, and lastly.is foicibly stretched to cover the whole country from the Waimakariri to the Hurunui, and from the East to the West coast, besides meaning all the other places at the same time; Confusion will be the only result of such nomenclature. A few honourable members might be worse employed than in sitting as a committee of taste to find proper-titles for the country constituencies, not one of which, has a distinctive^name of its own. There are numbers of names to choose from, bequeathed to us on the Association's maps; and there are plenty of native names (if they are preferred)somnding full as well as the few on which we have been all along ringing the changes. These small matters cost little trouble and no expense, and would repay a little graceful attention bestowed at an opportune time.

District. J Town of Christehnreh " « • JLyttelton District of Kaiapoi " of N. Christchurch " S. Christchurch " Lyttelton << Akaroa Electors. I 209 210 108 163 268 93 127 Membe] 5 5 1 4 4 3 2 ;rs. 42 42 108 41 67 31 61 Total 1178 24 50