GREAT TRHWH FOR THE GOVERNMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 137, 7 December 1905, Page 5

GREAT TRHWH FOR THE GOVERNMENT.

RETURN OF 55 MINISTERIAL SUPPORTERS. GAIN OF NINE SEATS. POSSIBILITIES OF A FURTHER SUCCESS. SUMMARY. , Government * • 55 Opposition - -16 New Liberals - • 2 Independent S

The general election took place yesterday, and resulted in one of those surprises which are the feature of politics. Extreme interest had been taken in the campaign, and the various parties, which had spent the recesses of the last Parliament in active organisation and propagandist tours, were confident that they went to the country in a state of efficient compactness. The Political Reform. League, the Opposition organisation founded in the early part of this year, | had ekdeavoured to emulate the tactics j of tho Liberal and Labour Federation, and was confident that it would make a brave showing at the polls. The Ministerialists were equally convinced that the popular verdict would be a renewal of strength on the Government benches. j Nobody was prepared for the actual ? result, which was a record victory for j the Ministerialists, and something very like the ruin of the Opposition proper. The Premier is back in power with an * unwieldy" majority, ,and the independent units are almost obliterated. Many names of high standing end of great- and deserved weight in our politics are missing, and their places have been filled by new men and a number of resurrections of old Government followers whom the battles of earlier years relegated to private life. Among the "missing" are: — Sir William Russell, Mr. T. E. Taylor, Mr. Herdman, Mr. Buchanan, Mr. Duthie, Mr. Moss, and Mr. Bedford. Others who will be absent from their places are Messrs. Lang, Hawkins, and Willis. Mr. Vile, a valued member of the Opposition, is dead. Something like stupefaction is the feeßng dominating every one, and eTen the Premier is ununderstood 1 to be astonished at the magnitude of his victory. Mr. Fisher and Mr. j Laurenson alone of all the New Liberals will foe seen in their places next July. According to the returns furnished last night, no fewer than 37 candidates have forfeited their £10 deposit through having failed to poll a quarter of the number of votes polled by the successful candidate in the respective contests. Amongst theae lesing depositors are Mr. Hindmarsh (Newtown), Mr. M'Farlane | (Wellington North), Mr. Cooper (Wellington Central). THE NEW PARLIAMENT. Following is the full list of members of the new Parliament. The doubtful seats are Wellington East, where Mr. M'Lean may yet defeat Mr. Aitken and secure another seat for the Government, and Nelson, where Mr. Atmore may defeat Mr. Graham without affecting the strength of parties. The Maori members election has yet to take place. GoTernment. Opposition. Independent. ALLEN, E. AITKEN PISHES ABNOLD ALISON LAUBENSON BABBEB ALLEN, J. MACKENZIE T. BABCLAY FBASEB, W. THOMSON, J.C. BAUME BOLLABD POOLE JBENNKT HABDINa BUDDO HARDY CAKBOLL HEBBIES COLVIN KIRKBJtIDE DAVEY LEWIS DILLON LETHBRIDGE DUNCAN MASSBT ELL MALCOLM FIELD MANDEfi FLATMAN REID FOWIiDS BHODES PKASEB.A.L. GRAY GRAHAM GREENBLADB GUINNESS HALL HALL-JONES HANAN HOGG HORNSBY HOUSTON HOGAN IZARD JENNINGS • KIDD LAWRY MAJOR . M'GOWAN M'KENZIE, R. M'LAOHLAN MAOPHERBON - , MTTAB MILLAR MILLS POLAND REMINGTON ROSS RUTHERFORD SEDDON SIDEY SMITH STEWARD BYMEB STEVENS TANNER WARD WILFORD WOOD WITTY THE NEW MEMIERS. The new members in the present Parliament are given below. Some have sat in previous Parliaments. The Government's gains are made very clear by this table. G. 0. I. DILLON MALCOLM POOLE BARCLAY GJtAY GREENSLADE ' HOGAN HOBNSBY IZARB MACPHBRSON POLAND ROSS STEVENS DEFEATED MEMBERS OF LAST PARLIAMENT. Members of tasl l'arliament who lost their sweats are given below. "They include in their ranks such veteran campaigners ms Sir William Russell, Mr. John Duthie, Mr. Buchanan, and the virile leader of tho Now Liberal Party, Mr. T. E. Taylor. Uorcrnment, Opposition. Independent. WILLIS BUCHANAN BEDFORD DUTITIJ! ■ XAYLOB HAWKINS HEBDMAN LANG MOSS lIUS3ELJ

THE STRUGGLE IN WELLINGTON. A DULL, DRAB CONTEST. SENSIBLE AND SERIOUS VOTERS. There were few outward signs yesterday to show that an election 1 was in progress, and the work went on peacefully and unobtrusively. It was not until late in the afternoon that people's pulses began to quicken with the anticipation of the excitement k> come. During the morning the polling had been languid, but when the shops had closed the officials were kept very busy, and thenceforward until 7 o'clock the'polling booths were the focus of animated attention, although the suppression of the old-time ilamboyancy of elections levelled the proceedings to a grey and emotionless so- ! briety in good keeping with the sombre I menace of a sulky sky. The raucous j candidate and agitated eommitteeman, the flying Vehicle be-splashed with- pictorial shrieks of direction and adjuration, the storm of mock ballot papers and subtly persuasive leaflets — they were all gone. The starkly-closed "hotels and the shops with their Wank and storing fronts completed the hard Puritan aspect of the day. Here and there a voting booth had its little crowd of people, but they spoke mildly and with the decent gravity of participants in a funeral. It was the calmest of all elections, and the circumstances conspired to force, upon the elector the sacrificial quietude of a man engaged in a dark and secret enterprise, with the universe and its destiny in his hands. The election officials declared that the voters were never so sensible and serious. NIGHT SCENES. GREAT CROWD IN WILLIS-STREET. Before seven o'clock the evening* meal was a thing of the past, and the thousands begat) to pour into the city for the ieal work ahead of them. There was no solemnity now, and a gleam expectant of the tumult and the shouting shone in, the eye 3 of the workmen come to see their handiwork. Lambton-quay and Willis-street soon assumed the aspect of a human gulf stream — warm, whirling, and incessantly moving. At seven o'clock the floating atoms of humanity | coalesced into a huge crowd in front of ! the Evening Post Office until the thick and impassable congregation of human beings surpassed all previous records. The drifting waifs and strays of conversational conjecture, dubious expectation j and positive assurance, droned slowly into the strange restless hum of a great crowd anticipating a. revelation. The throng outside the Post publishing office packed the street from the Mtumersstreet corner to near the Empire Hotel. Mercer-street was a solid slab of humanity, stretched far away into the darkness. Seen from the large decked balcony, the spectacle was an absorbing one. A sea of pink-buff faces, all a-tilt at the same angle, stretched as far as the :eye could reach, intense and concentrated in the glare of the electric lights. It was like some strange meadow with an extravagant burgeoning of nightmare blossoms — a new and extraordinary field of Cadmus, and buzzing like a dynamo. In the early evening and also late ab night trams crept slowly and gingerly through the mass, and it divided momentarily i with a fringe of helter-skelter that flattened itself into the frontages to allow the trams to pass by the smallest fraction of an inch. Now and then a cab would stagger perilously, with nervously dancing horses, through the mob, ; and % then with the surge of a • sound of water the divided sea rushed together again. The cabmen wer<? unpopular, and the electric Juggernauts, which fortunately did not run through, Willis-atreet wken the crowd was thick-* est, were received with howls of execra-' tion. The crowd swayed softly and rhythmically, and little thrills and trickles of vibration kept the heaving mass in a fourmillemcnb that was shudderingly unpleasant to the spectator above. But it was a well-behaved assemblage. Suddenlj a roar greeted the appearance of a. messenger on the balcony with a little bundle of strips of paper. The white-coated attendants of the display board grasped their paste brushes, and carried their ladder to the Wellington Central section of the board. "Cooper 10," and a roar of cheers and laughter shook the stars. "Fisher 116," and the cheering soared to a screaming roar. "O'Regan 101," and vocal pandemonium was let loose. Cheers and hoots, and cheers- again, roared like a surf sea on a rocky coast. "First blood to Fisher. Three cheers for Dahn," yelled a thousand enthusiasts. "He's in. Make no error. Fisher!" It was the return from the Aro-street booth, and it was only twenty minutes after the poll closed. The returns began to come thick and fast from the various booths, and a rapid fusillade of cheers and shouting, with vigorous hooting, made it impossible to distinguish the most stentorian shout in tha din.- Newtown and Wellington North and Wellington East gradually built towards completion, and the crowd yelled impartially, and tossed and swayed. But it was Wellington Central that was wanted. Each of Mr, Fisher's scores brought d> thunderous storm of enthusiasm. Mr. • Fisher had a small lead when all the returns were in except Willis-street, and when at 8.15 p.m. that result arrived and gave the New Liberal a 400 majority, a terrific explosion, with the shrill whizzing overtone of all overpowering sounds, burst with tremendous violence, and the cheering rose and fell for many minutes. Ladies waved handkerchiefs and hats, and smiled, and threw soprano exultation into the massive male roar. Again and again the cheers came, and snatches of song were thrown to the surface and engulfed again. It was a magnificent ovation. By this time all the neighbouring and verandah tops were crowdf'K and the trams had ceased to run. The crowd waa solid, delirious, and immense. HOW THE RETURNS WERE RECEIVED. A volley of ardent hooting, with a smsill leaven of cheers, greeted the return of the Hon. C. 11. Mills. The result of the Hutt election passed unnoticed The posting of Mr. Aitken't lead at 8.35 p.m. was Lho signal for another wild storm of delight. About thb fciaw_

faint odours of obsolete eggs stole softly through the air, and the crowd heaved and swayed, and fought hopelessly to give the eggs room. At a quarter to nine Mr. Fisher, preceded by his mother and sibter, emerged through <i window on to the Post balcony, and delirium set in. For five minutes the huge throng went mad in an abandonment of ecstacy. A long sustained roar of wplcome crashed into deafening cheers again and' again, helpless faces, convulsed in agony of delight, laughed and yelled, and a spray of handkerchiefs and "hats flickered over the tumult. Mr. Fisher got through his little speech in scraps of three words at a time, but the throng was swept away by its emotions, and few heard him. It was clearly the event of the night, and the chaos subsided only when Mr. Fisher called for cheers for the defeated candidates. Mr. M'Laren followed with a manly little speech, and was given a cordial hearing. Thenceforward the proceedings were lively in the extreme. The Premier'/! return was cheered, and another outburst greeted Mr. Barber's win. At 9.15 p.m. tue summary showed: — Government 11, Opposition 1, New Liberal I,' and the crowd yelled again. Five minutes later Mr. izard's victory was posted, and the exhaustless energy of rival yells burst forth again. By now the results for the Masterlon, Hawenv, Patea, Taranaki, Waipawa, Geraldine, and other small fry were posted. Groans greeted the news of Mr. Hall-Jones's win. Just before 9.30 p.m., Mr. Izard, jubilant and excited, appeared on the platform, and was greeted with a, crashing cheer. He plugged through his speech, and bowed his way out, throwing a kiss to the ladies, in a scene of I great enthusiasm. Mr. Birber followed, and received a mixed hearing. When he claimed a victory on his own merits, there was an ear-splitting howl of dissent. Then a slight lull followed, and the crowd, women and men, fought and struggled, and swayed like a wheatfield under wind. Mr. Hogan's victory for Wanganui brought forth roars of delight. A fainting woman was carried out of the crowd. About this time the younger members of the crowd made things lively with their rough horse-play. A lady in a white hat hit out and cleared a space for herself. Small battles raged and whirled like ripples jn a pool. Bare heads became frequent. One or two arrests were made. For an hour a little circular well had remained in the crowd • — as neatly circular as if drilled by machinery. It was Pestilence and Perfume — an eloquent egg. Mr. Bedford's defeat caused an uproar at 10 o'clock, and then came a lull in the posting of results. The crowd filled in time with rough jostling, and opened with cheers to allow Mr. Izard to take his drive in the sunshino of success. By this time the Government had picked up twenty-two seats. Mr. O'Regan appeared on the balcony in a storm of cheers and hooting. He said the people had been veiy indulgent to Mr- Fisher, but the crowd found this unpalatable. It jarred, and they groaned in a great chorus. He ended in a storm of hooting, and shook hands with Mr. Fisher on the balcony. The news of continuance in Nowtown was the next subject of demonstration, and songs came with noisy irrelevance. It was 10.15 p.m. before the news of the Christchurch North election arrived. As soon as tho paste went on to the placard, there was a roar of anticipation. When Mr. Taylor's numbers were hoisted there was a cheer and then a hush. Would be win? Surely he would win, surely. Then, when his opponent's triumph followed, there was a, terrific outburst of cheers and groans, and ultimately the cheers prevailed. As the night wore on, and the Government's successes came thick a,nd fast, the crowd thinned at the edges, but it was a mighty crowd that yelled its disappointment and delight at Sir William Russell's defeat. Mr. Herries had been posted beaten, but a correction placed him safe, and the crowd cheered btormily. The Opposition defeats poured in, but the victories of Mr. Kirkbrido and Mr. Lewis cheered the stupefied spectators. R was eleven when the crowd was visibly smaller, but thenceforward until midnight there were still two thousand people with their faces upturned to the fateful display. Shortly after midnight the display ended, and the crowd, with tha garrulity of reaction and realisation, chattered in thick and thinning streams along the streets, explaining, arguing; and wondering. It was after 2 a.m. before the city had its bedtime air of desertion. The excitement was over..