RANGITIKEI ELECTION.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 57, 4 September 1909, Page 6

RANGITIKEI ELECTION.

Some interesting notes on the progre&s of eveuts in the Rangitikei electorate are furnished by a correspondent, •who is taking a keen interest- in the campaign. Each of the six candidates, he remarks, is certain of getting into the second ballot. It seems at present as if the two Opposition candidates, Messrs. Hockley and George Hutchison, will receive an almost equal measure of support, although Mr. Hutchison is playing a lone nand and Mr. Hockley is receiving the support and help of the Opposition organiser and of Mr. Guthrie, on behalf of the large landowners. It is estimated, by the bye, that the amount of capital represented on the platform at Mr. Hockley's Hunterville meeting ran into the respectable sum of • half a million. Even so, opinion is divided as to which of the two will get into the second ballot. Of the Government supporters, Mr. Meldrum appears to be receiving tho largest measure of suppbTt around Hunterville and the adjoining district, and ho will also receive a general' measure of support in the Mangaweka and Taihape districts. Messrs. Smith and Georgette have also a strong following in and around Taihape and Mangaweka, but they will not, it is anticipated, have so great a following in Mr. Meldrum's district as Mr. Meldrum will have in theirs. • Mr. Hornblow also claims that he Trill have to bo reckoned with in the second ballot. To sum up the position, however, the correspondent thinks that Air. Hockla^ will be the Oppositioa representative in the second ballot, with Mr. Meldrum for company. At a recent meeting of organised labour, it was decided not to "run" a Labour candidate, but to Bupport Mr. Meldrum.