HUTT BY ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 20364, 21 December 1929, Page 10

HUTT BY ELECTION

THE OFFICIAL COUNT [Pfm United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, December 20. It is improbable that the final result of the Hutt by-election will bo announced before Saturday or Monday. A' scrutiny of the roll took place yesterday, and the official count will he commenced to-day. There has been no change in the figures since yesterday. UNITED PARTY’S CLAIM. [Special to thb ‘ Star.’] WELLINGTON, December 21. A moral victory for the Government is claimed by the United Party as the result of the announcement of the figures for the Hutt by-election ; It is recognised that in Mr Nash and Mr Harold Johnston the Labour and Reform Parties brought out two of the strongest candidates they could find, and as the total stands Mr Kerr has polled almost two votes to one against Mr Johnston and is right on Mr Nash’s heels. The result may not be known until Monday next, and it is probable that a recount will be demanded by Mr Kerr under the provisions of section 151 of the Electoral Act. This provides for a magistrate to preside over proceedings. In support of the Government’s claim of moral victory it is pointed out that Mr Kerr was not nearly so -well known in the electorate as Mr. Wilford, yet he palled a substantial vote.. Labour’s vote was recognised to be fairly solid as the result of progressive settlement of working-class areas of the Hutt, but Labour’s vote also fell away and proportionately Air . Kerr held his own in every booth save one. That was Eastbourne, where it was known there would be a raid upon the votes by Reform and where the United total dropped from 630 to 150, the votes cast being greatly less than at the general election. Mr Nash’s vote was down by 1.300 as against general election figures, and while Mr Kerr’s was 2,700 less than that of Mr Wilford last year, it is recognised that the new High Commissioner polled many Reform votes which were cast less for him than against Labour. '

i A striking feature of the election was the fact that Mr Kerr carried Lower Hutt, considered Reform’s best quarter by . 300 votes, and the fact that Mr H. D. Bennett, Reform candidate of 1922, who has not been nominated by the party for .any seat since that time, received only 51 votes less than Mr Johnston, though the roll has grown from 9,874, the total seven year« ago, to 16,371 to-day.