The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1127, 13 September 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuaaion, religious or political. Here shall the Press the People's right maintain, Unawed by inflnenon and unbribed by gain.

Although! the Electoral Pill of last session has m a measure become wastepaper, as au expression of Ministerial opinions on the great question of electoral reform it is not without interest at the present time, The measure too has been brought prominently forward by the utterances of Mr Ormond at Havelock, who, on reading the Bill came to the conclusion of withdrawing the support he had promised it, at a previous meeting of his constituents at Waipawa, should it be brought forward by the Government daring the coming sessiou. Mr Ormond's principal objection to it was that it proposed to perpetuate the double Maori vote. And, m this objection Mr Ornioiid will be upheld by all independent. representatives of Northern constituencies. The 16th clause of the Bill piovides that Every male Maori of the full age of twenty-one years who is not enrolled under this ct m respect of a rating qualification shall be qualified to vote m tho election of members of the House of Representatives, if he is seized at law or m equity immediately or derivatively under a grant from the Crown as sole owner or as owner of aa undivided share of lands for his own life or the life of any other person, or for any larger estate, of the clear value of twentg-Jive pounds at the least, and has been so seized for six months previous to the date of his claim, to j vote. j To the uninitiated, Mr Ormond gave an instance of how this would work, mentioning a particular block m the Ilawkes Bay Province, whcro there were one hundred and fifty natives on the Crown Grant. Under clause sixteen, the whole of those natives would be entitled to vote. And this, doubtless, would be a stale of things repeated m larger or less degree throughout the country constituencies of the North Island. Such a state of things means simple disfranchisement ot the European, voter, and throwing the turning point of /m election into thehandsof whichever party, m most case 3 the Government of the day, could more eeaily manipu^

l»te the Maori vote. Nor, is it a mutter of justice to the Maori, on the ground that Maoris and Europeans should exercise equal political ' privileges (a postulate they can scarcely claim to lay down, so long as they refuse to become equally amenablo to the law as fche Europeaus), that be should exercise the qualification included m the clause above quoted, whi le he already enjoya direct representation under tha Maori Representation Act of 186.7. That Act entitles the natives to four representatives m the Lower Mouse, while m the Legislative Council they are, at the present moment, represented by two members, ont of a roll of ib rty-.six m number. Tho House of Representatives is composed of eighty-eight members, the eighty-four Europeans representing a population of 409,279 souls, exclusive of Chinese, or one member to every 4,880 sonls. Now, taking 1 , the Maori population at 30,000, they are -represented, by the Act of 1867, to the extent of one member for every 7,520 souls; and if the Maori population to be represented were confined to those who would, i as European electors are require^ by the lG6th clause of the proposed bill to do, declare themselves subjects of the Queen, we should probably find that the natives deserving representation at all, were, at the present, considerably over represented. As a matter of expediency, the dual vote is equally objectionable, swamping as it undoubtedly would, the Europeau vote m a large number of North Island constituencies. A most unmistukule expression of opinion against it has beeo declared m both the Waikato and Waipa districts during the late elections, and no electoral measure,, can be called a liberal one, which, while it gives extended franchise to the European with the one hand, takes from him with the other, the power to use to any purpose the enjoyment of such extension. It is simply centralism, m another form, seeking to emasculate the country districts, by giving to centres of population the power of control ing elections m mixed European and Maori electoral es, for the purpose of returning, as members, corrupt and facile tools ready to the hands of any Centralism^ Government.