HOW THE PARTIES STAND.

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 112, 17 November 1928, Page 8

HOW THE PARTIES STAND.

-Until tho 50,000 absentee, postal, and seamon's votos have been counted it will bo impossible to determine precisely tho relativo strength of tho contending parties; but meanwhile tho trond of public opinion is indicated by the returns which already havo been unofficially announced. Those record, subject to minor corrections, 257,103 votos for tho Reform Party, 230,154 for the United Party, 157,253 for tho Labour Party, and 14,351 for definitely unattached candidates. Thcso figures, under a sound system of proportional representation,* applied only to the European election, would givo the Reform Party 2S seats in tho new Parliu ment, the United Party 25 seats, the Labour Party 20 seats, and tho Independents, assuming thoy voted together, 1 sent, while tho destiny of the two remaining seats would dopend upon tho distribution of candidates' surplus votes. It looks at present as if the United Party wore going to capture more seats than it is entitlod i to by tho number of its votes, but on tho whole the distribution of seats promises to be more equitable than it has been on many previous occasions. At tho lust General Election the Roform Party, .with 317,fi54- votos, captured 53 seats, while Labour, with IS-_,(>113 votes, captured 13 seats, and tho National Party, with the assistance of Independents, only 10. Obviously, if is its luck rather than its prcstigo tho Reform Party has lost. One of the remavkablo features of the rocont remarkable election is tho extent to which the rural constituencies have exchanged their representation from practical farmers to othors than followers of agrarian pursuits.^ The most conspicuous instnnco of this tendency is provided by tho Wnirarapn electorate, where tho Minister of Lands, one of tho most capable and onergotic administrators tho farmers ever have known, has been exchanged for a city resident whoso association with country life must be almost forgotten even by himself. However, I judgo that the three Ministers of tho Crown who have been temporarily relieved are not greatly perturbed by the chance ttiut has befallen them. One of them, in acknowledging my inquiries concerning his health, replies with the laconic observation, "Blessed aro tho dead. They rest." And so we roach an appropriate conclusion.