ELECTION PROSPECTUS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14986, 5 June 1914, Page 8

ELECTION PROSPECTUS.

(SPECIAL TO "THE PRK'S.' , ')

WELLINGTON. June 4

The prospects of tho Reform Party ar the next election continue to improve, and it seems almost a certainty that they will capture three seats iv the northern part of the South Island.

Mr A. A. Paape, the organiser of tho party, who has just returned from a tour of that part of the country, brings confirmation of this opinion. The Rpform gathering to select a candidate for Motueka was, he says, both enthusiastic and effective. Mr Paape does not content himself with mere assertions— he gives chapter and verse to prove the position. For instance, he points out thai one of . the candidates for the party nomination —Mr lisa. Macniahon —was tiie selected Liberal candidate for Nelson at the last election. The conference was attended by 42 delegates from all pa its ol tj;e electorate, and of that number, Mr Paape stated, fully fifteen were at the time of the last election keen supporters of the present Opposition. "All tho candidates for selection were keen to stand," Mr Paafpe added, "and I believe that any one of them could have captured the seat. The members of our party are particularly optimistic right through the electorate, and the scat is absolutely ours. «

"So far as AVnirau is concerned." Mr Paapt? continued, "the position there is equally good, and we are confident ot" winning that seat also. It has been stated that we cannot get a candidate for Nelson, but we are working in our own way in regard to that. A requisition is now in circulation asking a gentleman to stand in the interests of the Reform Party, and to my knowledge, in Bri'ihtwator and Wakefield alone, over 150 electors hare signed the reqiiisition. At Richmond practically nine-tenths of tho people have signed. In mj* opinion Mr Atniore will require a majority of 500 in Nelson City in order to get the scat, and ho cannot possibly get it. I feel perfectly satisfied that these three seats in the north of the South Island are going to be won by the Reform Party."