BY-ELECTION FOR PATEA

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27425, 11 August 1954, Page 10

BY-ELECTION FOR PATEA

Mr Sheat Retains Seat

MAJORITY OF 18 VOTES

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 10. The final figures in the Patea byelection, announced tonight by the Chief Electoral Officer, reduce Mr W. A. Sheat’s majority to 18 votes ovep his Labour opponent, Mr B. Winchcombe. When the by-election was held on July 31, as a result of Mr Sheat’s resignation, the final count gave Mr Sheat a majority of 24 votes, with 320 absentee and postal votes to come. The final count has now been completed with the following results:— W. A. Sheat (unendorsed National Party), 3648. B. Winchcombe (Labour), 3630. J. Duggan (Liberal), 305. Informal 54. Majority for Sheat, 18. “The Government will be glad to have Mr Sheat back in the team again,” said the Prime Minister (Mr Holland), tonight. “During his absence from Parliament his very considerable debating ability has been greatly missed.

“As far as the by-election itself is concerned, I do not think there is any particular significance in the result for either political party,” he added. “The final result of the Patea byelection confirms the views which I expressed on the night of the announcement of the preliminary poll figures 10 days ago,” said the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Nash) tonight. “A young Labour Party candidate on his first nomination has polled within 18 votes of the National Party candidate, a sitting member who in 1951 gained a majority of 2467. “The Patea by-election results are striking evidence of the continuation of the wide swing toward the Labour' Party, and away from the National Party that was so convincingly demonstrated in the by-election of December last,” said Mr Nash.