Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1880. THE REPRESENTATION QUESTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue 5, 17 September 1880, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1880. THE REPRESENTATION QUESTION.

I ♦ — It is gratifying to notice that the representation question is being freely discussed in the Press, as a thorough sifting of the subject is most desirable, in view of the fact that the Eepresentation Bill will form in all probability the piece do resistance of next session. The question is manyside.l, and any attempt to base the representation upon a castiron rule will inevitably lead to failure. The Grey Government, v we remember rightly, proposed that a Board to be appointed by Parliament should adjust tho representation, whenever an adjustment was necessaiy, a purely population basis being taken, but they proposed to allow 25 per cent, more representation to the rural districts than to towns. The Hall Government have propounded a scheme, embodied in a remarkably " innocent" measure, duly slaughtered, which may be thus summarised : Single electorates, and the best possible provision for ourselves, friends, and supporters. The fact that the Government devoted so little trouble to bring the Eepresentation Bill to the birth may be taken as an indication that they are not wedded to it any more than they are to many other equally important but equally unsatisfactory measures they introduced. They are bound, however, to introduce their Bill next session, as Parliament expires in February 1882, and the country would never submit to another general election under the present rfes-adjnstment. If the present Government are ousted next session, their successors are certain to take up the question. The only point we intend to deal with at present is, the claim of the country districts to a higher rate of representation than the town electorates. "We confess to a deal of surpise at reading some remarks upon this subject in our Wanganui evening contemporary of Wednesday last. He sa id : — The principle of having one unit of representation in towns and another in the country is exceedingly objectionable. In this young cou"try we should know no distinction between men or communities. What is the difference in favor of tho laborer living in the country to his brother living in the town that he should have more representation ? It may be said that tho towns would swamp tho country under a system of equil representation. If the interests of the town and. country were opposed or hostile the argument would have some weight. We can suppose a state of flntasronism. We have heard a great landowner say that email freeholders were a nuisance, and would have to be driven into the towns. The Roy Mr Andrew made a speech in the Assembly on one occasion, in which he implied that all cockatoos were thieves and v»gabonds! But as we cannot desirn to see such gentlemen have all their own >vay, we would counteract them by equal representation. In a word we hope to see the country populous, covered with vi'lagea, and made so by the aid of the dwellers in towns, whose true interests are on all-fours with a large agricultural population and the subdivision of the land. The normal standard at the present time is about one member to each 5000 of the population. Let this be accepted, and then wo shall have a sound principle to •which wo may approximate as close as nwy be found practically expedient. Our contemporary asserts that it is objectionable to have a higher rate of representation for the country than the towns, and why ? Because it implies a country labourer is a better man than his prototype ! Surely, if this is the only argument that can be brought against the proposal to handicap the towns, our contemporary is advocating a very weak cause, To

select simply one class of inou, and ask— Are they better than those Hire them ? shows rather a desire to evade the real question at issue than to face lfc.^ As we take it that question is this : Are there special advantages possessed by large centres, of population which should be compensated for by increasing the representation of the country districts ? The most superficial observation will show that large towns possess double, aye treble, the political power of country districts of the same population. The reasons are obvious. There is a concentration of influence and interest in a city that cannot be attained in a large scattered district.- The Press is more powerful in large towns. Mass meetings can bring pressure upon the Government of the day. . ... There is a greater proportion of the " leisure " class, able to agitate, and devote themselves to furthering the political interests of the place than can be found in a country district of the same population. Powerful deputations can be sent to bring pressure to bear upon the Government. The Municipal Corporations, Harbour Boards, and similar public bodies can "work "the authorities. The representatives in Parliament of large cities are the centres of larger circles of political influence, which can at all times be used in judicious logrolling, to the immediate benefit of their constituencies. In view of the above list of advantages towns possess over rural districts, — and those advantages cannot be gainsaid — is it; not only just and politic that the country districts should be assisted by higher representation to maintain their position, and prevent the slaughter of the weak to enrich the strong.^ That such would be the case, experience abundantly teaches. Carlyle in one of his works speaks of the "instincts of wealth.' There are also " instincts of power," both in individuals and communities, and one of these is to secure aggrandisement if necessary at the expense of others. In the Parliament of New Zealand today, might is right. Let us instance a matter. During the last two or three years repeated applications have been made by deserving Harbour Boards in the Colony for endowments, but in each case they have been refused. The Foxton Harbor Board, in the absence of all endowments, aud being utterly destitute of means to spend a shilling in improving the river, asked the Government thai as they had " seized " the only public wharf on the river, and turned it into a railway wharf, the said structure might be handed over to the Board as an endowment. This request has been preferred on several occasions, and a blunt refusal given. Yet Mr Oliver only a week or two ago introduced into Parliament a Bill to confer upon the newly-formed Harbor Board at Wellington the large railway wharf just completed, and a great quantity of valuable land as endowments! These facts, we say, bear out our assertions as to the predominance of political power possessed by the large towns, and which can be balanced, only partially, we admit, by increasing the representation of the country districts. There is another point. Towns are the outcome of the progress of the country districts. The country districts are the producers — the town's are consumers, and live upon the country. Therefore, we claim for the country a higher representation. For example, suppose the town of Wanganui were blotted out in a night. The result would be that next day another town would be started. But suppose the country districts around. Wanganui were blotted out in a night, and the town left standing "grand in its loneliness, " the result would be a decided depreciation in the value of property, and in a few years travellers would be sketching Wanganui a la Lord Macaulay's New Zealander. This is no fancy picture/ for a glance at Hokitika of to-rday, and a remembrance of what' that town was 18 ye.ira ago, will show whether the W anganui Herald is right when it speaks of the country being " made populous by the aid of the dwellers in towns." Rather is it that the towns are made "and maintained by the aid of the dwellers in the country. Then, again, the population of the towns cannot be compared with the country. Our contemporary asks if the country labourer is better ihan the town. We believe he is, and for this reason : He. almost invariably has a stake; — perhaps only a hor.se and saddle, but more generally the country labourer is a maa working with the intention of owning land himself, ttut take the broader view, and place 10,000 of the counti'y population beside a similar number i'vom one of the large towns, and it would, we are sure, be at once seen that iv every sense the country population were superior — whether as regards thrift, stake in the country, or any other ground. The reason is obvious. The criminal, the infirm, the dependent, and idle classes all gravitate towards the large centres of population, and it is monstrous to say the loafers at public house bars in large cities, the flunkeys and servants, the inmates of lunatic asylums and gaols, the destitute and idle who secure a living •' on the public," are to possess the same electoral weight as the sturdy settlers .of Manawatu or the Wunganui Country district If we are to have a population basis, I

tho only fan^^Hp^be to allow the country e'lecraHras 25 per cent , and allot, the rept^entatives according to the mynber of male adult* capable of registering as electors. We do not arlvcate that course, as we think the purely population basis would be false in principle and unjust in practice, but we think the plan suggested— of the male adults capable of registering being tho basis — would be a fairer basis than the all round plan advocated by the Wanganui Herald.