Patea County Mail. PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1880. REDISTRIBUTION.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 541, 3 July 1880, Page 2

Patea County Mail. PUBLISHED Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. SATURDAY, JULY 3, 1880. REDISTRIBUTION.

Now is the time for Patca County to claim its political rights. The Government have introduced a Bill for the Redistribution of Seats. That is a matter as important to us as a Railway. The opportunity has come just when this County is in a position to profit by it. Let the opportunity not pass unused; for unless wc agree to strike in with our claim at the right time, our chance will be gone, and once gone it cannot be recalled at will. Parliament is asked to readjust the electoral representation, and to do it on a basis of numbers—at least that is the presumption. The clauses of the Bill are not yet before the House. The Bill itself is probably not printed; for the practice is to draft a Bill, to revise it by agreement in Cabinet meetings, and then to formally introduce it in one of the Chambers for first reading. This first reading is a Parliamentary fiction. The Bill is not read at all to the House or by the House at this initial stage. It is issued to members in a printed form some days afterwards, so that they may examine its clauses before the important stage of second reading is reached. It is on the motion for second reading that the object and scope of a bill are explained ; and thereon follows the discussion of its principle. Having passed that ordeal, on which the trial of strength invariably takes place, the bill

is then examined clause by clause in committee of the whole House. The clauses being revised and approved, there may be a farther fight on the formal motion that the report of the committee be x’cceived. The third reading is rarely contested ; and tbe successful bill then passes to the other House, to go through identical stages. Both parties in the House of Representatives, if parties they can be called, are agreed on the necessity for readjusting the political representation of the colony. New districts have become populous since the last revision of electoral power, when the provincial system was abolished. Inoqaulities of grievous extent —too grievous to bo tolerated by vigorous colonial politicians —have made Redistribution a present necessity which any Ministry must face. Redistribution is a burning question; and this new important Bill is likely therefore to occupy the attention of the Lower House to an extent which may overshadow every other legislative effort of the session. Whether the measure will he made a shuttle-cock of parlies remains to be seen. Office-seekers and office-holders are the very men whose wretched party manoeuvring makes the noble science of politics a thing contemned and nauseous. The County Petition to Parliament, which will be found in another column, sets forth the case of this district in a manner which is likely to commend itself to the intelligent fairness of the bulk of the members of both Houses. The original petition will be forwarded to Wellington in a few days, for presentation to the House of Representatives.