GREY BY-ELECTION.

MR HOLLAND RETURNED. LABOUR MAJORITY REDUCED. Press Association. GREYMOUTH, May 29. The election to-day was conducted in a most orderly manner. Motor cars were in great evidence, with colours flying everywhere. Ten minutes after the poll closed returns commenced to come in, and Mr Coates held a commanding lead until the returns from the mines arrived, which put a different complexion on the result. The figures are:— H. E. Holland (Labour) 2853 T. E. Coates (National Government) 2643 Majority for Holland .. .. 210 One small return, that for Moonlight, and 103 absentee votes have yet to come, but cannot alter the result. Mr Holland, in returning thanks, said that as soon as Mr Webb was a free man he would resign the seat. The Hon. J. T. Paul and Mr A. Walker, M.P., also spoke. The party will commence a political campaign at Hokitika to-morrow in the Labour interest, and will continue it throughout New Zealand. There were 900 fewer votes polled to-day than at the election of 1914, and Mr Webb's majority was reduced by 7GG.

THE NEW MEMBER. Mr H. E. Holland, the new member for Grey, has twice previously sought Parliamentary honours, oh both occasions in Wellington North. At the general election of 1914, he polled 16*88 votes, as against the 4550 recorded for the Hon. A. L. Herdman and the 1895 given to Mr W. H. Turnbull, the Liberal candidate. Again, a few months ago he was a candidate for the vacancy caused by the elevation of the Hon. A. L. Herdman to the Supreme Court bench, but was decisively beaten by the Mayor of Wellington, Mr J. P. Luke, who stood in the interests of the National Government. Mr Holland came to the Dominion from Australia about six years ago, with a great reputation as a Labour organiser. He is a journalist by , profession, and for most of his time in New Zealand he has been editor of the "Maoriland Worker," a paper which he directed with considerable vigour. After some experience of the Waihi miners' strike in 1912, Mr Holland took a very prominent part in the great watersiders' strike of 1913 in Wellington and as a conseauence of certain public statements then made he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for sedition. Mr Holland is a man of some attainments, and his fluent and vigorous, if at times rather violent, speeches frequently display the results of considerable study and thought along the lines which appeal most to his type.