The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 294, 20 October 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1879.

A correspondent from County East lias suggested in our columns that now there is a proposal before Parliament for the redistribution of seats, an effort should be made to obtain for his district a representative of its own, As it is understood that population will be to a large extent the basis on which the redistribution will be effected, it is obvious that; any such movement would be necessarily unsuccessful in a sparsely populated country. At the same time we admit that the eastern division of the Wairarapa has not in the past received its due share of Government favors, and we are not altogether sure that this has not latterly arisen from an error in judgment which was made when Provincial institutions were abolished. Had the eastern division of the Wairarapa been combined with the western side in one great county it would have been less isolated than it is now, and much better able to fight a battle with the Government. What County East requires is population, and we cannot help thinking that it committed a grave error when it cut itself off from the populous centres of the Wairarapa and became a separate county. We believe that a union between the two counties now would be beneficial to both, Neither is rich, but it is not unusual to see two poor persons prosper after they are united and we consider the same rule would hold good in districts which are so closely allied in geographical position and in interests as are the two existing comities. For some years to come the two could be more efficiently and more economically governed by one Council, and if, at same future date their growth and progress made it desirable to subdivide the district again, the line would be more likely to be draw from East to West than from North to South. As a political sub-division, County East is now and has been for some time very weak, and we see but small prosp«ct of it becoming stronger until it possesses a larger population than it at present contains. Local jealousies and differences of opinion have tended in a measure to retard the completion of a good trunk line connecting it with Masterton, Had there been but one county in the Wairarapa these adverse influences would have been materially lessened. A good line from Masterton to Tenui and the Whareama is really really as important to County West as it is to County East, and under one united County this fact would, we feel sure, not only have been admitted but also acted upon. As things are at present, the prospects of both counties from a financial point of view are gloomy in the extreme, but by union and consolidation, it might be possible for one large county to feel its feet while two smaller ones would be swept down stream, If our friends in County East instead of fighting a hopeless battle for a special representative in the Assembly were to direct their effoits to a closer union with County West, we think their labor would be more profitable to themselves.