The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20. NEW ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81908, 20 December 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20. NEW ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES.

The annouiieemeiit of the Electoral Commissioners' Report as it all'eels this province, which we are enabled to make (his ..uiiiiiv.-. will no doubt be read With keen inleresl, by every time available for examination in thorough- alialvsc the ell'ect of (he new proposals, but it certainly appears at the moment that Hie anomalies in the present constitution of the. clrclorali-s iii the province has been largely overcome. Inqucstiollably an immeasurably greater degree of community of interests is shown than at present exists. Especially so is this the case ill the southern decorates, the old I'atca County, which included tlie boroughs of I'atca, Elthuni, and Stratford, loses its present tortuous and inexplicable boundaries, and it is now proposed shall include the boroughs of I'atca and Hawera (Hawera electorate going out of existence ill name) and the townships of Jlanuia and Okaiawa. Hawera, no doubt, will feel aggrieved at losing its identity, but none can question the greater cohesion given the electorate The Kginont electorate is now shifted com plelely from its present location, and is brought into closer contact with the landmark from which it derives its title, and briefly includes the country between the .Mountain and die northern boundary of llio new I'atca electorate, this is, roughly, from the eastern boundary of tne Eilhaui district westward to Opunake on the sea toast. Here again community of interests is strikingly apparent, and ihe new district, further is in conformity with the wishes of tile dis trice atl'eetcd, which includes the bo rough of Klthani and the town district of Opunake. Tlio Stratford electorate, likewise, may be sai-l to gratify the patriotic electors of that district, especially in view of its distinctive cognomen. There is no question that the nihility between Ihe districts of which the towns ot Stratford and Inglewood are the centres is immensely greater than unllie present order, with Slralfora s destinies hound up iu the i'atca electorate, and inglewood iu, shall we say, -old' Egiiionl, whose boundaries run away lo the NevcrNever. The new i'aumarunui electorate represents a curtailment of the western boundar its of present Egniont, with a corresponding extension to the northward and eastward, and as its boundaries encircle principally what arc known as "backblocks," will, as lias been ••old'' Egniont to be a diliicull one to work. Still, with the pushing on of roads eastward of .Waitara to the main trunk line, and northward beyond the ilokau, an increasingly

greater degree of community of interests must be brought about. At any rate, all backbloeks rc<|uirenienls are identical, and community of interests in that particular me not wanting in the new electorate. The Taranaki electorate has, ill the main, undergone no great change beyond a certain cur tailment of the outer boundaries, the

-ignilicance of which, along with that of the other electorates, we shall ilea! jvjth fuller when we have hail more opportunity to closely examine 'lhcni. '.Meantime, so far as the changes present themselves to us at present, we are of "linion that the electors in this portion of the colony (have, reason to congratulate them-

selves on Ihe result of the labours :>i the Electoral lioundaries Coinuiis-

-iuuers, wluiiii- findings, if similarly complete throughout tin' colony, should arouse lint lill.v hostile coninit'iil or call I'm- alteration excepting in iuiii.tr detail.-. Jit allotting mi additional seat to this province,' the ex l>aiisiuu and increasing requirements of Taranaki have been noted and lib erallv met.