WAIPAWA SEAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 233, 1 October 1940, Page 8

WAIPAWA SEAT.

LIVELY INTEREST.

"IN THE AIR AT THE MOMENT"

NAPIER, this day.

There is already lively interest in the future of the Waipawa seat, left vacant by the death of Mr. A. E. Jnil. Interest of National party followers is clarified by the announcement from the party offices in the constituency to the effect that Mr. J. D. Ormond, jun., who twice previously contested the seat, definitely did not leave signed nomination papers behind him before he left New Zealand with the Second Echelon, with which he is now serving in England.

The National party's intentions will probably be finalised to-night, when the party executive in the electorate will meet, and according to an official statement, "the ordinary procedure of making arrangements for the selection of a candidate will be set in train."

"The whole thing is in the air at the moment," said an official of the party to-day.

The intentions of the Government and of the Democratic Labour party are now awaited with much interest. Waipawa has never offered much support for the Labour cause. It was for years a Reform stronghold, held by Sir George Hunter, and since 'his death it lias been held by National candidates, with the exception of 1930-38, when Mr. H. M. Christie won it for Labour in the landslide election which first put the present Government in office.

Even Mr. Christie's success, however, did not have the merit of a straightout win and it was the splitting of his opponents' votes between Messrs. Jull and Ormond which gave him the seat.

Three years later, in a straight-out contest, Mr. Jull decisively won the seat back.

It has been suggested that Waipawa might furnish a suitable ground of combat to test the relative strengths of official Labour and Democratic Laboiif. but it is clear on closer examination that this is not the case, as the Labour cause as a whole has never commanded any great support in the constituency and any division of Labour voting strength would probably only have the effect of ensuring the election of any third candidate.