SPECIAL VOTES UNSEAT FOURTH CABINET MEMBER

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 1

SPECIAL VOTES UNSEAT FOURTH CABINET MEMBER

Special votes have toppled a fourth Cabinet Minister from his seat in Parliament.

The Minister of Overseas Trade and member of Parliament for Palmerston North since 1967, Mr J. A. Walding, saw his election-night majority of 68 become a deficit of 148 when the 1987 special votes for the seat were counted last evening.

The new member for Palmerston North is the National candidate, Mr J. L. Lithgow, aged 42, a held manager in the agricultural division of ICI New Zealand, Ltd.

.Mr Walding joins the former Ministers' of Education (Mr Amos), Health (Mr McGuigan), and Social Welfare (Mr King), who lost their seats on election night. This means that the National Government will have a majority in the House of Representatives of at least 21. The counting of special votes in Western Hutt, where the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr May) is sitting on a very slim election-night majority of only eight votes, is not expected to be completed before today. Should Mr May lose his seat, which seems probable, the new Government would

have a majority in the House of 23, exactly that of the outgoing Labour Government. The defeat of Mr Walding was the sole reversal of election-night returns among the 13 electorates to provide final figures last evening.

The Minister of .Justice (Dr Finlay) has been re-elected in his Henderson seat, but his election-night majority of 461 was reduced bv 60 after the counting of special votes. This followed the trend in all but one of the electorates to return final figures last evening: Labour majorities are reduced by the special votes and National majorities increased.

The only exception to the ! trend is 'Sydenham, where i the sitting member, Mr J. N. : Kirk (Labour) has increased , his majority by 180. In Rangiora, the new National member, Mr D. F. : Quigley, has added 483 votes to his election-night majority I to widen the margin between

him and the defeated Mr T. K. Burke (Labour) to 1386 votes.

Final results from the rest of the electorates are expected to come forward over the next two days. Most of them should be in by Thursday evening.

Mr Walding is a former Palmerston North city councillor. and before winning the Palmerston North seat in a by-election was the principal of one of New Zealand’s largest catering businesses and the founder and managing director of an export company which promoted frozen and canned gourmet foods.

While in Parliament, he was also Minister of Recreaion and Sport, and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs, a member of the Cabinet committee on policy and priorities, and a member of the Economic committee.