LABOUR WINS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 April 1926, Page 5

LABOUR WINS

EDEN BY-ELECTION. A MINORITY VICTORY /, ’ ' , ■' ■ GOVERNMENT VOTE SPLTT. (by TELEGRAPH —-PRESS ASSOCIATION.) AUCKLAND, April 15. The by-election resulted: Mr. H.'g. R. Mason (Lab0ur)...4473 Sir James Gunson (Government)...4o32 Miss Ellen Melville (Independent) 2250 There are 284 absentee votes to come which cannot affect the result. Mr, H. G. R. Mason, the newly eleced member for Eden, was born in Wellington in 1885. He was educated at the Clyde Quay primary school, Wellington, and at Wellington College and Victoria University, where he gained the LLB. degree. Mr. Mason was employed at one tim© in a law office in Eltham, and has recently been in practice in Auckland. He has stood for Parliament on three occasions.

PRIME MINISTER’S COMMENTS.

ANOTHER CASE OF VOTE SPLITTING. WELLINGTON, April 15. When the final figures arrived, the Prime Minister (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) commented that it was another case of the evil effects of vote splitting. He added: “The vote shows definitely that there is in the electorate a majority of over 1600 votes for the Government. Labour, therefore, 1 by a )<trge minority vote, secures the seat. The responsibility for this, result must be borne by those whose- actions enabled a safe Reform seat to be handed over to the Labour Party. I sincerely hone to-day’s experience will prove an object lesson for the future and will demonstrate that unless loyalty and whole-hearted support are forthcoming when the occasion calls, the result must inevitahlv be failure.”