SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1886. REPRESENTATION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1509, 22 May 1886, Page 2

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1886. REPRESENTATION.

The Governor's Speech and the debate on the Address in Reply were extremely lame. There was nothing in the speech which could be well condemned ; it was a meaningless string of words, and the speeches delivered on the debate on it were equally devoid of interest. Fireside astronomers *ay that when " the moon comes in like a lamb it is a sun* sign that it will go out like a linn." This session has begun very lamblike, and the probabilities are that it bill yet terminate lionlike. The greatest objection raised against the Bpeech was that it made no reference to the Representation question. The North Island members have got it into their heads that Mncc the paf sing of the Representation Act 1881 their part of the colony has become mure populous, and consequently entitled to more repreaentation in the House, and hence the cry in reference to Representation. It is not that they want to reduce the number of members, as some fondly expect ; there is very little room to hope that anything so sensible and desirable as that will be done. What they want is a readjustment of seats on the population basis, because they think the North Island has increased its population, while the South has not. Now, as regards the question, the Premier, it appears to us, made a satisfactory reply to it. He said the census returns had not yet been made up, and would not be for some tfmo yet, and consequently it would be impossible to deal with the question of Representation in the meantime. Of course i' would, and to give the question the prominence it has received is really absurd. Why 'it has come so prominently forward we cannot understand. The matt»r was never referred to last session, and no members spoke of it during the recess. The country baa n«ver thought about it, and so far as we see it is nothing but a miserable party cry. In 1881 a Representation Act was passed, the last clause of which runs as follows :—" This Act shall continue in operation until the first of December 1887, end no longer." The position therefore is plain enough. The present Parliament will expire in August, 1887 ; there will ba time in the meantime to hold a short session during the months of May, June, and July next year, and a new Representation Act can be passed, under which the general election can be held. To touch the question during this session would not be easy. The census returns must first be made out; then a readjustment must be made, and this cannot be done without a good deal of careful study, As regards the redistribution of seats, we sincerely trußt that if any change is made at all if will take the direction of amalgamating three or four constituencies together, so as to have larg»r electorates. The "onemember constituencies" are the cause of all the corruption, jobbery, and logrolling, and have landed us in our present undesirable position. Small constituenciea invariable return local men, whose only qualification is to get as much as possible for their own district. This leads to corruption. The representatives of large constituencies would be more independent, and an abler clas9 of men would get elected. These would not be influenced by local jobs ; the/ would work for the colouy as a whole, and we would have a purer and better Government, and better laws. But we do not expect that anything of this kind will be done, because it would mean the political extinction of a great many of our present legislators.