S

68 ' PAST AND PRESENT OF

Queens county was laid out in five di— visions denominated parishes named Gren- ville, Hillsborough, Charlotte, Bedford and St. John’s and containing on an average about one hundred thousand acres each. The divisions into parishes has fallen into dis- use, but there are still the same number of divisions called electoral districts, the first being popularly known as New London, the second as West River, the third Fort Au- gustus, the fourth Belfast and the fifth Charlottetown Common and Royalty.

There are twenty—three sub-divisions termed townships and the Town Common and Royalty.

The First District includes townships numbers 20, 2I, 22, 29, 30 and 67.

The Second: 23, 24, 31, 32, 65 Robin- son’s and St. Peter’s Islands.

The Third: 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, and 48.

The Fourth: 49, 50, 57, 58, 6o, 62 and

Governor’s Island. The Fifth: the city.

These Electoral districts were thus 0r- ganized at the time of increasing the repre- sentation of each county to ten members fifty years ago and no one can say Queens has ever been gerrymandered for the pur- pose of advantage in provincial elections. Each district has ever since continued to elect two members of the Assembly. The present representatives are: -

Ist. District—Hon. George Simpson,

.member executive council, Matthew Smith.

2nd. District—Hon. .A. E. Douglass, M. D. speaker legislative assembly, John Mc-

Millan.

3rd. District—Hon. J. H. Cummiskey, commissionor of public works, Leonard

\Vood. 4th District—Hon. F. L. Haszard, mem- ber executive council, D. P. Irving.

5th District—Hon. George E. Hughes, member executive council, James Warbur- ton, M. D., ex—mayor.

The system of representation by popula- tion had not been adopted. Queens had in I 856 a population of thirty-seven thousand six hundred and eleven while Kings had but fif- teen thousand three hundred and forty-two and Prince seventeen thousand five hundred and fifty-two, so that Queens had more than the population of Kings and Prince together, nevertheless, ten members were allowed for each county and adhered to. Previously eight members represented four districts in each county and earlier the number was eighteen for the whole island at the com- mencement of its legislation. Some of the western constituencies of today are larger.

A comparative table of the population of each of these townships is as follows:

1855 1901

Lot 20 1131 1231 Lot 21 1097 1532 Lot 22 1369 1226 Lot 29 1610 1787 Lot 30 1076 1357 Lot 67 974 1525 7265 8658

Second District.

1855 1901

Lot 23 1753 1742 Lot 24 2212 2362 Lot 31 1264 1434 Lot 32 1151 1059 Lot 65 1506 1632 7886 8229

Third District.

1855 1901

Lot 33 1091 1120 Lot 34 1502 1153 Lot 35 1194 1124 Lot 36 1126 1173 Lot 37 933 1186 Lot 48 1390 1237 7236 6993