NEW ELECTORAL DISTRICTS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 433, 25 March 1890, Page 2

NEW ELECTORAL DISTRICTS.

IT is impossible to conceive by what method of reasoning the Boundary Commissioners have arrived at their decision in regard to the East Coast district. The allocation appears like a hpge joke, or a merciless illustration of the scurvy way in which a weak district may be treated. Certainly our experience of the Boundary Commissioners is one that will not inspire us with much faith in them* If in the past the East Coast had been fairly treated, and communication with Tauranga, Opotiki, and the other place., facilitated by means of good voids, (her*

would then perhaps be some affinity o f interests between us. But through no such communication being provided, and | the weaker districts having been systematically overlooked in the expenditure of public money, we are in the position that while we can fully sympathise with our friends in the northern districts, because we have all been sharers of the common injustice, yet we are far removed from the sphere of each other’s influence. It takes much less time, and probably less expense, for a person on the Gisborne portion of the Coast to go to Napier, than it would to go to Opotiki or Tauranga. In no way is there a like interest throughout the proposed electorate, and we cannot but apprehend, with feelings of regret, a renewal of that local strife between Gisborne and Tauranga which was such a political curse a few years ago. Since then the balance of power has been vested in the Gisborne side, and by united action we could at any time overwhelm the Tauranga portion of the electorate, and i Ipotiki, which has an individual existence of its own, would probably be about equally divided in its sympathy with either side.

Of course the question may be looked at in other ways, and when we have sufficient information to form a better idea as to the effect of the new boundaries, it may be supposed that Gisborne will have much more power than hitherto. The influence that can be exercised in the southern electorate may enable the Te Arai district to ensure proper representation in the House, while pressure from the Opotiki and Tauranga side may induce the party in power to have a good road to connect us with Opotiki, and therefore open up a vast extent of country which is now lying waste for want of proper communication. In other words we might have the combined slipport of two members instead of the weaker efforts of one. But past experience unfortunately all points the other way, and convinces us that in place of united action, Gisborne,. Tauranga, and Opotiki will be unable to sink their individuality for the sake of the general interest, and that each locality will find itself arra'yed against the others. It is a risk which ought, if possible, to be avoided, and we think that the public bodies of the three centres should take immediate action, and endeavor to avert such an absurd arrangement being forced upon us. Tauranga is really the centre which ought to most keenly feel the injustice, and we trust such energetic action will be taken there as will materially assist the Gisborne public bodies in forcibly placing the position of affairs before the authorities.