MR. JONES WINS

MID-CANTERBURY ELECTION,

MAJORITY OF FIFTY-FIVE

REFORM TRADITION UPHELD,

The official counting of the votes in the Mid-Canterbury electoral poll was completed on Tuesday evening at Ashburton, the final figures being:— Connolly, Jeremiah (United) .. 4082 Jones, David (Reform) ~ 4137 Wightman, R. W. (Independent) 242 Williams, C. Morgan (Labour) 905 Informal .. 52 Majority for Jones .. 55 At the election of 1925, when'contesting the Ellesmere seat, most of which is now embodied in Mid-Canter-bury, Mr Jones secured a majority of 634 votes over Mr J. Connolly. The closeness of the voting between the leading two candidates this year caused surprise to the supporters of both. It is being freely commented that but for the presence of the Labour candidate the seat would have been lost to Reform. This, of course, is entirely a

matter of opinion

The Ellesmere electors have been loyal to the Reform Party consistently since 18G9, when the Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes first won the seat. For a quarter of a century, Sir Heaton Rhodes received a majority of votes at every election, his most dangerous opponent being Mr J. C. Free, who polled within less than 300 votes of his total in 1914.

With a new candidate in the field three years ago, the electorate reaffirmed its Reform allegiance by giving Mr D. Jones a decisive majority, and Ellesmere had become spoken of as a safe Reform seat. Mr Connolly's votes this year are the highest bid that any opponent of Reform in Ellesmere has made for the past thirty years.

VOTING ANALYSIS,

The following are the details of the voting:— Ordinary Votes — Jones 3889 Connolly .. .. 3817 Williams 833 Wightman .. .. 221 Absentee Votes — Jones 176 Connolly .. .. .. 199 Williams .... 59 Wightman .... 14 Postal Votes—' Jones 62 Connolly .. .... 49 Williams .... 7 Wightman .. .. 5 Declaration Votes— Jones .. .... 10 Connolly .. .. ~. 17 Williams .... 6 Wightman .... 2 Of 51 declaration votes east, 16 were disallowed, as the voters were not entitled to vote. Absentee votes totalled 530, of which 76 were informal or not in compliance with the law. The poll for Mid-Canterbury, therefore, was a heavy one, only 634 electors out of 10,135 failing to record their votes. That is, 93.74 of those on the roll exercised their rights.