National confident it can unseat Mr Rowling

Press, 18 February 1977, Page 2

National confident it can unseat Mr Rowling

PA Nelson, The Leader of the Opposi-' i tion (Mr Rowling) does not ihave a safe tenure on the! i Tasman seat, said the presi-j dent of the National Party j (Mr G. A. Chapman) in Nel-> son yesterday. Mr Chapman, who on Wed- \ nesday night attended a meeting of the newly formed ;Stoke branch of the party, said he believed that Mr Rowling would have lost the Tasman seat in the 1975 General Election but for the fact that he was the sitting Prime Minister. “It was only that extra status which helped him to'

i i retain his seat,’’ Mr Chapman ' said. He said that the National Party would have its candi•i dates for the 1978 General Election in the field by the i end of this year in their tf- ! forts to unseat both Mr Rowling from Tasman and Mr Mel Courtney from Nelson. The National Party considered both Tasman and : Nelson to be marginal seats. The Nelson by-election result followed the usual trend against the Government of the day, but the mood within the local party organisation 'had changed since then.

; “There is a stronger mood I now within the party organ- | isation in the two electorates than I have seen since I became leader of the party,” he !said. “1 have indicated a programme of action to the party organisations in both electorates and they would have my personal support in moving toward the selection of candidates later this year. “I believe it is necessary to have a candidate in the field a year before the next General Election backed by a strong party organisation, such as is emerging in both electorates.”