THE VERDICT OF -THE COUNTRY.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9596, 10 December 1896, Page 4

THE VERDICT OF -THE COUNTRY.

When tho votes polled throughout the country on.Friday last are examined as a whole it will be seen that the reaction against Seddonism rests on a very solid basis. In Canterbury, for example, we sent up five Opposition members out of thirteen, aud considering that the province returned a block vote in favour of Mr. Seddon last election, there is no doubt that even from this point of view we did very well. Taking the aggregate number of votes polled, however, we find that the Opposition total was only some 800 below the Government total, the respective numbers being—Government 30,153, Opposition 29 296; while there are 17,105 "independent l,, votes, most of which were, no doubt, given by -people dissatisfied with Seddonism. Taking the colony as a whole the figures are:—Government 161,926, Opposition 150,084, Independent or doubtful 40,680. [v addition to these there were 2958 votes cast for caudidates described simply as " prohibitionist," without any indication as to their political attitude on general questions. The number of votes cast for prohibitionist candidates of all shades of politics was 61,699. Of course all these numbers represent votes, and would have to be considerably reduoed to get the number of voters, owing to the triple vote in the cities.