THE GREY BY-ELECTION.

Grey River Argus, 31 May 1918, Page 2

THE GREY BY-ELECTION.

THE Grey By-Election is now numbered with the things that are past and after a hard and clean fought tussle the Labour Candidate was elected by a majority of slightly over 200 votes The election of Mr. Holland is no surprise, as it was generally anticipated that he would top the poll, but there was a real surprise In the closeness of tho result. That it can be termed a ' ' great Labour victory " is to ignore plain facts. Mr. Webb's majority was 980, Mr. Holland's is just over 200. Allowing for all the changed conditions of a smaller poll at the by-cection it is plainly rather absurd to call it a "great" victoiy. It is also claimed as a defeat for conscription, but when we find that the Labour candidate got a majority of over 700 in the colliery centres of the electorate,, which are decidedly "class-conscious" and that the vote of the electorate outside these centres whittled this big majority- down to a little over 200 it- cannot be said that conscription fared at all badly in an electorate which has probably the biggest reputation in the Dominion as an anti-conscriptionist centre. In fact it has fared very well indeed. And if, as is also claimed, the result is a con demation of the National Government then the" Government will certainly be justified in thinking, that from a constituency where they expected scant mercy, the punishment meted out does not sound anything like so dreadful as the- extreme penalty. The plain fact is that the majority is not nearly so large ■as was • anticipated in Labour I circles, and : if any one doubts this he can obtain solid information on the point from some of those "sports" whose enthusiasm outran their discretion in. giving in too many hundreds of a majority in -their eagerness; to rake in the shekels, of those who were willing to • support their belief that tho local candidate would not, be distanced. However- it- is all over and a Labour member has taken the place of a Labour •■ member, and under* the circumstances- surrounding the By-election no fair-minded person can find very much to grumble at in the result. Labour has got its man* in, theopposition candidate did very much better than was ever anticipated«..by his supporters at the outset, and best of all there is nTP bitterness or ill-feeling. . On all sides .one hears praiseworthy remarks of the cleanness of the contest and" of the sportsmanlike manner in which Mr. Coates has accepted his defeat. What remains is for all concerned to assist Mr. Holland) in furthering the best interests of tho district which he now represents in the Parliament of the Dominion.