THE WAIMEA ELECTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 279, 23 November 1881, Page 1

THE WAIMEA ELECTION.

To the Editor of the " Etjening Mail." Sik— l think your correspondent " Waimea Settler," whose letter appeared in your Jssua of the 19 th instant, must be a new chum, or at least he has not taken notes of what has been passing under his nose when he talk 3 about the iDJury the Hall Government has done to Nelson. It is well known that as far back as August, 1866 (see Hansard), Mr Stout called the attention of the House to the fact that according to the Constitution Act Nelson was largely over-represented in the House, aad pointed out that it had a district with only 200 electors which returned one member to the House, while in Auckland one district that had 1000 electors returned only one member also, and that some districts in Otago were not fairly represented according to population. Since then the attention of the House has frequently been called to tbe same subject. • The Hall-Atkinson Government has passed Sir G. Grey's Manhood Suffrage Bill, and his Triennial Parliaments Bit), and it i 9 a well knewn fact that Sir G. Gray was the father of iha Representation Bill, and which he would probably have carried had he got into office again. Tna only question for Nelsea to consider is, Would we have got belter terms from Sir George than from the Hall-Atkinson Government; would he have departed so far from his policy as to have favored Nelson in the matter? I think not, as in the discussion on the Bill he alluded pointedly to tbe opposition he had met with from the Nelson members, and we know what Mr Macandrew's feeliDgs are towards us since the Curtis etonewslliDg affair, when the Nelson members forced him to put £60,000 on the estimates for the extension of our railway. I believe that tbat stonewalling was a loss of time and expense to the colony, as I have not heard of sixpence of the money then voted being spent here, except on useless surveys, which were dressed up according to order. Ico not approve of representation according to population, as thinly populated districts must neceßsarily languish under such a system. The Hall Government have merely carried tut Sir G. Grey's policy, and his opposition to the Bill was simply bosh. I am, &c, W. Painton. November 21, 1881.