IN CANTERBURY

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 147, 19 December 1919, Page 7

IN CANTERBURY

TWO LIBERALS SNOWED UNDEK,

(II I£LEOBA£H.—SPECIAL 10 THE rOSI.)

CBRISTCHURCH, This Day. The outstanding feature of the votingin Christchurch CSty was the tremendous strength of the vote for the Labour candidates, without exception. Although?) Isitt's' majority, as predicted, was the' largest in Canterbury, his Labour oppcn nenfc lost with. 3651, which looks formidable as compared with, say, M'Combs's wiir with 2939. Dr. backer also had'a, very substantial majority, but his pppo- . nent did handsomely to get 3350 votes. Very few men in the whole of New Zealand shared the 5000 'mark with Thacker and Isitt, but one of them was Sullivan, who beat Russell so decisively by-1600 votes. This great majority was the surprise of the election, and even more significant than Howaa-d's big win in Christ - church South, for certainly Holland i wobbled so horribly that it becomes evident now that even his friends must have • deserted him. As indicated earlier., Russell was- a minority representative, and on this-occasion he went back 250 votes on 1914, so that his position was hopeless without the backing of Reform. The election will probably have a tonic effect on Isitt and Thacker, for if they might hare been tempted-to rest on their oars, the heavy polling of very weak opponents must give- them something to think over. ' ■■'. ii»i ■

Witty, in Riccaifcon, is a minority ie-, presentative, but he did, very well taj beat the Reform candidate in a field, which included a. Labourite who* wasabla; to poll 1900 votes. M'Combs is a 150?... minority representative, but the going' suited him well, and bis three-opponents: made it easy for him. If he attends icarefully to the. interests of his constituency he may hold the seat for a, long' tune. I>. Jones, in Kaiapoi, can thankH tha Labour candidate for letting him .ip.. there by less than a hundred votesRhodes, in Ellesmere, got over 500 more ■than he won with, last time, and he surprised even his friends, who thought" that he would be beaten. However, the revulsion of feeling against the Ward Party seems to have caught him up, and the same may be said of Ashburion, where the revelations of sectarian' strife seem to have been.all to the good; of, Nosworthy, who carried the .P.P.A." ticket.' The local joke of the elections was the declaration by the Lytteltoh Times that Forbes had been beaten , for Hurunni, and this announcement on the night of the poll was a very much greater surprise than Sir Joseph Ward' 3 defeat, but it appeal's that the figures got reversed, and Forbes, although going back slightly on previous figures, scored a fair win.

Ell's loss of his deposit is just a sam*. plo of hbw a man doing national.'.'•' as against parochial work may be turned down by the electors, but he certainly "butted in" where he was not wanted* and nobody, is very sympathetic. It is hard to say what he will turn his hand to now, but possibly he may take up an organising position in .connection with' the Summit-road project, since he stoutly asserts that he ■ will never take a Government appointment. Mr. Russell, wht> is still running a little weekly paper, the Spectator, will probably throw himself into tho work of rejuvenating it./'