THE NEW ELECTORATES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1673, 10 February 1917, Page 2

THE NEW ELECTORATES.

WHILE there would seem to be no harm in postponing the redistribution of the electorates, there would be distinct disadvantages arising out of a fixation of the new boundaries to sessions ahead of the dissolution, and therefore the decision of the Government to take no immediate steps to set in motion the delimiting commission appears to represent, in the circumstances, the best course, says the Wellington Post. Owing to the northward trend of population, there will have to he extensive rearrangements of boundaries south as well as north. Parochialism being in politics too often the guiding force, the average member of Parliament is already snthcienlly taken up with the assiduous task of catering to the local wants of such localities as are in his electorate; and if to this was added a meticulous consideration for electors prospective as well as present, the parish pump might become so serious a business that the country and the Empire might he pushed out of the Parliamentary intelligence altogether—which would be a calamity. The roads and bridges politician can serve many masters, but etui he serve two electorates ? On the whole, therefore, it may be wise, for (lie present, to leave the new electoral boundaries unfixed. Many campaigning questions may turn thereon, and Parliamentary parties are still too far from the end of (he war to need any local distractions from the big work in hand. Before another year lias elapsed much water will have Jlowed beneath the bridge, and the whole perspective in reliit ion to objects far and near, largo and small, may have altered.