When the Representation Commission is creating electoral districts, they try to make each district have roughly the same number of people, which is called the quota. If they think it's not possible to create districts with exactly the right number of people, while still following the rules in section 35, they can make a small adjustment. You can think of this adjustment as a tiny change, of up to 5%, to the number of people in a district, to help make the districts more even.
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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM308196.
35: Division of New Zealand into General electoral districts, or
"New Zealand is divided into areas for voting, with roughly the same number of people in each area."
37: Classification of electoral districts for purposes of pay or allowances, or
"How electoral areas are grouped to decide politicians' pay"
Where, in the opinion of the Commission, General electoral districts cannot be formed consistently with the considerations provided for in section 35 so as to contain exactly the quota, the Commission may for any General electoral district make an allowance by way of addition or subtraction of General electoral population to an extent not exceeding 5%.
