Communist Party Candidate For Westland Election

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 August 1949, Page 4

Communist Party Candidate For Westland Election

For the first time since 1913, there is to be a three-cornered contest for the Westland seat at the forthcoming General Election. The sitting Labour member, Mr J. B. Kent, is terbe opposed by Mr. P. J. O’Regan, National Party candidate, and by a Communist, Mr. R. H. Mitchell, of Greymouth. . ' The decision of the Communist Party to enter the field was announced yesterday and today the party announced that, at a provincial confer-, ence, the unanimous choice as candidate was Mr Robert Henry Mitchell, of Greymouth. So close was the voting in Westland in 1913 when there were three candidates in the field that a second ballot had to be held, in accordance with election procedure at that period. It also marked the first election success of the just-formed Labour Party (then known as the Social Democrats). On the first ballot the voting was: — H. L. Michel (Reform) 2189, P. C. Webb .(Social Democrat) 2091 and M. Hannan 2039. For the second ballot, held a week later, Mr Hannan withdrew and supported Mr Webb and the voting resulted in Mr Webb’s election to Parliament for the first time, by 3442 votes to 2771. New Candidate’s Career The Communist Party candidate, Mr Mitchell, was born at Christchurch in 1915. He completed his schooling at the Christchurch Technical College, where he took a university entrance course in engineering. He won the junior athletic championship of the school in 1930, breaking five records at the annual tournament and was middle-distance champion for all Christchurch secondary schools in that year. After working in farms and threshing mills, etc., for several years, he came to the West Coast to work in the Waiuta quartz mine. From there he went to the east coast railway construction job, where he was engaged, in tunnelling. In 1940 he returned to the West Coast and began work at the Strongman State mine, where he is now employed as a miner.

Mr Mitchell has been an Inangahua Rugby League representative .and later a West Coast tennis champion. At the present time he is president of the West Coast Lawn Tennis Association. In the industrial sphere, he was an executive member of the Inangahua Coal and Gold Miners’ Union, was active in the New Zealand Workers’ Union while on railway construction, is a deputy check inspector at the Strongman mine, and is a State Miners’ Union delegate to the Grey Miners’ Central Committee. After being a member of the organising committee of the Greymouth Consumers’ Co-operative Society, he has been its vice-president since its inception and for two years was a member of the national executive of the Federation of Co-operatives. Mr 'Mitchell was also a member of the organising committee of the Greymouth Workingmen’s Club. He took a prominent part in the anti-con-scription movement prior to the lecent referendum. y Mr Mitchell’s rise in the Communist Party has been rapid. Prior to joining the Communist Party m 1940 he was a member of the Labour Party. For the last six years he has been chairman of the West Coast district committee of the party and delegate to all national conferences. He is married with two young children.