GENERAL ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 20943, 6 November 1931, Page 8

GENERAL ELECTION

SELECTION OF LOCAL CANDIDATES There is a great deal of conjecture regarding the candidates who will go to the poll in the four Dunedin electorates at the forthcoming General Election, but it is generally anticipated that, when the candidates are finally announced, there will be straight-out contests in most of them. The sitting members in Dunedih Central (Sir Charles Statham), Dunedin West (Hon. W. D. Stewart), and Dunedin South (Mr W. 13. Taverner) will receive the official Coalition imprimatur, and an official Coalition candidate. has yet to be chosen for Dunedin North, a seat at present held by Labour. A.u official announcement of the Coalition candidates will probably be made at the end of this week. In Dunedin Central the Labour opponent to Sir Charles Statham is Mr J. Gilchrist, and so far there lias been no hint of any other candidate entering the lists. In Dunedin South the official Coalition candidate, Mr W. B. Taverner, will have Mr F. Jones as a Labour opponent. Mr D. C. Cameron, who was announced as a Reform candidate before Coalition was established, is reported to have been urged by a number of electors to stand as an Independent candidate, but there is a strong possibility that ho will withdraw from the contest.

It was anticipated that there would be a straight-out contest in Dunedin West, where the Hon. W. D. Stewart was opposed by Mr J, Gilchrist in the Labour interest, but an announcement has been made that Mr J. M'Donald has been requested by supporters to allow himself to be nominated as Jan Independent Liberal candidate. The official Coalition candidate for Dunedin North has not yet been chosen to oppose Mr J. W. Munro, the sitting member. Prior to coalition taking place Mr James Taylor was announced as the United candidate, but he has now decided definitely not to contest the seat. There was a possibility of Mr H. L. Tapley being a candidate, requests having been made to him by supporters of both Reform and United to allow himself to be nominated, but he states that, acting on medical advice, he has been reluctantly compelled not to engage in political activities in the meantime. This morning the mayor (Mr R. S. Black) stated that, in response to requests that had been made to him for several mouths, he has decided to contest Dunedin North as a United Coalitionist. Inquiries show that Mr Black is not an official nominee of the Coalition interests. For Chalmers Seat the sitting member, Mr A. E. Ansell, will be opposed by Mr N. Campbell (Labour), while Mr T. Scollay has announced himself as an Independent.

OAMARU SEAT The Rev. L. B. Neale, of the Dunedin Central Mission, has been officiallyasked to consent to nomination for the Oamaru seat in the interests of the Labour Party, but he has declined to accede to the request. He states that the pulpit still holds him, and that he has in hand a, very important and a very necessary work. Mr Neale added that he might re-enter municipal politics some day if the people desired that he should do so. At a meeting of the Oamaru Labour Party last night Mr Percival Malthus, a farmer, of Hillgrove, was selected to contest the Oamaru seat in the Labour Party’s interests at the forthcoming elections. ” / UNITED EXECUTIVE LOYAL At a meeting of the Dunedin Executive of the United Political Party, held last evening, the following resolution was carried unanimously:—“That this executive loyally supports the Coalition Government, and pledges itself to do everything in its power to carry out in spirit the agreement made by the party leaders.” A copy of this resolution was forwarded to the Prime Minister today. _____ MARSDEH SEAT / Mr William Jones, who represented Marsdeu in the Reform interests in the 1925-28 Parliament, and was defeated by Mr A. J. Murdoch (United) at the last election, has declared his intention to contest the seat as an Independent Reform Coalitionist. CRACKS IN GCALITIGM AGREEMENT THE POSITION IN AUCKLAND [Special to the ‘ Star.’] AUCKLAND, November 6. There is no sign of a real Coalition agreement in the Auckland constituencies. The Reform and United Parties appear to be going their separate ways in organising on behalf of candidates in which each is particularly interested. The Coalition agreement was designed to limit the fight in the average electorate to two candidates—Labour and antiLabour. The actual result has been to increase the number of candidates. The lead given by Sir George Richardson (Reform) in withdrawing from the Auckland East contest to leave a clear field for Mr J. B. Donald (United) and by Mr J. Caughley (United) in withdrawing from Parnell in favour of Mr W. P. Bndean (Reform) has so far been followed nowhere else in the metropolitan area. On the contrary, several Independents have mitered the lists, an action no doubt encouraged by the failure of the two anti-Labour parties to reach agreements in the great majority of the electorates. It is an open secret that the United Party was prepared to give Reform a clear field in Manukau if the United Party was allowed a similar run in Auckland West, hut the appearance ol Independent Reform candidates in Koskill (Mr W. J. Holdsworth) and Eden (Mr R. Glover Clark) appears to have barred the way to a settlement on those lines, even if the possibility had previously existed.