Redistribution of Seats.

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

Redistribution of Seats.

A COUNTY MEMBER

The Government have introduced their promised Bill for Redistribution of Seats. The plan on which the new electoral representation is to be based is not yet stated. It is expected that one member is to bo allotted for every five thousand inhabitants of a town or county. Those towns which are overrepresented in this proportion will be reduced to the new level of representation. The County of Patea, which has about five thousand inhabitants, exclusive of Maoris, is in a position to claim separate representation. A resolution to this effect was passed at a public meeting held at Patea, and intended to have a County character. A petition to Parliament was drawn up after the meeting, and it has been in course of signature during the past fortnight. We understand that it has been signed so numerously that practically the petition expresses the unanimous voice

of the County in favor of applying to Parliament to have seperatc representation allotted to this County. The petition is as follows ; To the Honourable the Speaker and -.Members of the House of Jtepresen- , tatives of the Colony of Next) Zealand, in Parliament assembled. THE PETITION Of the Residents in the County of Patea humbly sheweth That your petitioners have learnt with great satisfaction that it is the intention of the Government to introduce a bill for the Redistribution of the Electoral Representation ; That the Electoral District of Egraont consists of two sections widely remote, being separated by a large tract of confiscated land, about 56 miles by the coast, unoccupied except by natives ; That these two occupied ends of the Electoral District have no interests in common, but rather diverse, as shewn by experience when local questions have required united action ; That the County of Patea, situate at the southern end of Egmont, comprises a compact group of townships and settlements, which have interests in common, and which are rapidly increasing in population and cultivation; the area of the County being about two million acres, and the present population about five thousand, having largely increased since the last official census ; That a separate Electoral District might be formed conveniently by grouping the settlements within Patea County into one Electoral District; That this new Electoral District would also include the townships and districts of Wavorley and Waitotara, those being within the boundary of Patea County, but cut off (by the present inconvenient arrangement) from the Electoral District to which they naturally belong;

That the present electoral district of Egmont cuts into two parts the group of settlements within Patea County ; That this County of Patea desires to bring its wants and wishes under the notice of Parliament through a separate Representative ; That with the object of giving effect to the wishes of the settlers and residents within Patea County, a public meeting was held, and the following resolution unanimously passed ‘‘That this meeting urges upon the Government the necessity for a separate Representation of the County of Patea in Parliament,”

Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray your honourable House to give effect to this petition, and your petitioners will ever pray, &c.