Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Christchurch, 8th Feb., 1855.

HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT is pleased to direct the publication of the following correspondence for general information.

By order of His Honor,

John Hall,
Provincial Secretary.

To His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.

Superintendent’s Office,
Christchurch, Nov. 23rd, 1854.

Sir,

In transmitting to you the accompanying Ordinance I beg to make the following observations:

The subject of the enlargement of the Provincial Council of this Province was first considered in February last when the following Resolution was adopted.

"1. That in the opinion of this Council it is desirable that the number of its members should be increased to not less than 24 members.

2. It is desirable to delay any alteration in existing arrangements until after the next registration of Electors."

The subject was then postponed until after the next registration of Electors in order that a fuller electoral roll might enable the Government and the Provincial Council better to determine how to arrange the requisite alterations in the electoral Districts.

Upon my return to the Province from Auckland, the Provincial Council, immediately upon their meeting, proceeded to pass a Bill for enlarging their body by twelve members, and causing the issue of writs for that purpose without the necessity of a dissolution of the present Council. The new members were to be elected by the existing Districts in the same proportion as the present members.

I returned this Bill to the Council because the present apportionment of Representatives to constituencies seemed to me unfair; Akaroa with only 50 Electors returning 2 members, while Christchurch with 337, returns only 4. In wealth, political activity, and intelligence, the comparison being in favor of the Christchurch District even more than in numbers.

At the same time, I sent down to the Council another Bill for altering the Districts and making some improvements in the machinery of the law according to the original idea which appears to have been in the contemplation of the Council in February last.

The Council adopted the second Bill and incorporated the first with it. This will explain to Your Excellency the object of the 2nd clause of the present measure.

In this form I have to pray Your Excellency’s assent to the Ordinance.

It will probably be right for me to state the rule which has been adopted in dividing the Districts. Passing by a slight alteration in the boundary of the Akaroa District which enables some families to vote in Akaroa to which they can readily get, instead of in Lyttelton as at present, which they can only reach by a severe journey, the only material alteration made is in the subdivision of the Christchurch country district into four distinct Districts. His Excellency Sir George Grey adopted this plan with regard to the Waimea District at Nelson, and would have no doubt done the same here, had he been furnished with similar local knowledge of the country.

The four proposed districts are as follows:

1st. The Kaiapoi district—comprising all the Province north of the Waimakariri river. Kaiapoi is fast growing into a town with entirely distinct interests and comparatively little communication with the rest of the Province. It promises to be one of the principal settlements in the Province.

2nd. The Lyttelton District comprises a tract of country cut off from the plains by a distinct line of separation—the lofty hills, which surround Port Victoria, and the inhabitants of which have no intercourse on political matters with the electors on the north side of those Hills. A numerously signed memorial was presented from the inhabitants of this district to the House of Representatives praying that their district might be separated from that of Christchurch. The remainder of the Christchurch district has been divided into two parts nearly equal as regards the number of the electors. There are four main roads leading out of Christchurch, around which the population of the district has principally clustered: the Riccarton Road, the Papanui Road, the Lincoln Road, and the Sumner or Ferry Road, each of which forms the centre as it were, of a separate district of electors. To make a separate Electoral District for each would be...