REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5632, 18 April 1879, Page 3

REPRESENTATION BY POPULATION.

{(From the Lyttelton Times.) . j Ono;question,however, will, do ; doubt arise: out of the allotment ofrepresentation accord-: Ing, to, population. That question is whether the, ft j large town shall carry with' it the same numerical representation as is given to small towns and rural districts. We are of tion should be applied.tb.the large towns. Fob instance, if one representative is granted to “every rural'population of 4804 souls, the rate of population according to which representa-i lives are. granted t» large towns should be: higher. ' It mnst be borne , in mind that large t "tbwis we,'necessarily stronger than country: . districts. :in,..utilising.: representation and , in •giving-it-greater-force and weight. Those’ towns have daily newspapers to urge particular ..policies,, and to,. bring pressure. on. representatives. Public meetings can at'once be organised in towns, and daily deputations can, if necessary, "bo sent forth in~pursuit of 'public The leisure class is greater in town —tham in - the - country,- - and affords greater facility in the choice of members, more accus--tomed .to _pubho,_ business, more . conversant with politics, more influential in Parliament, and betterable to attend continuously during each session. Then, again, 'the .number' of persons natnrally congregating to large towns, —many-of whom have no special interest in the colony, would'give, if" the same standard of ... calculation. as_was supplied to the country districts were applied, an .undue .preponderance to those towns* Lot us see what would-be i-'WF*?S'. e T.® n vP o ? 1“ "this colony; / We, take r: the ; cities of .Auckland, -Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, and we’include their. • immediate suburbs, inasmuch as for the purpose of,-our argument they atd 1 practically —town—populations. .The . city., of . Auckland, with Parnell and Newton, has, "by "-the - census of last year,, a popula- ; —.26,263, —Dividing,. that[. .number the; average: rate: of. population-• to a •. 1 that what is practically the : ’ town.of, Auckland would bo entitled to five . members, - The population of the city, of Wel-- - hngtonfs 18,963, .and .a: similar calculation 'r Would give it;withln'so small a fraction of four j ,members/'that‘ [it would be hardly fair, if the .. .standard were applied, to give it less. Christ- * a-population-'-of 24,979, and would' be entitled “ta five tiiembcrs,’ Dunedin, with -;j Rqslyn and, Cayersham, which are really part. population point of view, numbers'- ' 8?i886,-»nd would -bltuffeigbtFeprescntatives numerical share. The result would' rt S r ll fonr——tli® present

number of members of the House of Representatives the large towns of Auokland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin would be entitled, according to the population last year, aggregately to twentytwo of those members, or to more than a quarter of the whole House. We do not say that at present they have their just share, but we contend that the numerical basis, considering the other exceptional elements of political strength which they possess, would give them an undue preponderance. Moreover, we must not look at the question merely in the light of their present population. If the principle is ri<dit that number should be the absolute and universal standard, the application of it must be made in the same way when, as most probably will be the case in the course of time, the proportion of the population of those towns, or of some of them, is much greater over that of the country than it is at present. Let us look at an extreme case—but then extreme cases test principles, for where is the line to be drawn when a principle fails ? London, with a population of nearly four millions, ought to send more representatives to Parliament than the whole of Scotland, which has little more than three millions. As it is, London sends sixteen, and Scotland fifty-three representatives. The wildest Kadical, so far as we know, has never dreamed of any great change in these proportions most certainly not ef the revolution which the.numerical test would effect. Are we in this colony prepared to adopt a principle which must sooneror later lead to more or less extravagant political injustice ? Now that we are about to adopt what is approaching to universal it behoves us to be cautious in the steps which we take in the distribution of representatives. ’ ___