THE ELECTIONS DOUBTFUL SEATS

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 November 1928, Page 5

THE ELECTIONS

DOUBTFUL SEATS

IN TWELVE ELECTORATES. LARG-E NUMBER OF ABSENT VOTES. PROCEDURE FOR COUNTING. (By Telegraph—Special to The Star.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 15. The election issue remains somewhat in doubt pi" about a dozen seats, owing to the fact that large numbers of aesent votes have been notified, but will not be included in tbq count until the scrutiny and official compilat.on. Greatlv improved facilities have been provided for voters wishing to exercise their franchise outside their own electorate. with the result that quite 50,000 votes were registered in this way and have not yet come into the returns. The total of absent votes, postal votes, and seamen’s lights is 48,923, excluding Christchurch South, which had not been reported to-night. Seats in which there are narrow majorities and large outstanding’ votes are as follow, the list showing the party non holding the seat: Auckland East (United), 847 votes outstanding. Grey Lynn (United), 652 votes to be counted. Franklin (Reform), 507. Waikato (United) 563. Pa tea- (Reform) 547. Wellington North (Labour), 838. Kaiapoi (United), 570. Riecarton (United), 570. Mid-Canterbury (Reform) 450. Temuka (Reform). 499. Dunedin South (Labour), 823. Mat-aura (Reform), 460. The official procedure when an elector votes outside his electorate is for the returning officer handling the vote to- telegraph to the returning officer concerned, seal the ballot paper and forward it by post. Returning officers are now engaged in checking the rolls to ascertain if there is a duplicate vote or impersonation. When this has been done the official count- proceeds, and in some -of the larger electorates will take two clays. At this, stage the votes received from outside areas are counted for the first time. It- is expected that most of the electorates will proride* final figures by Saturday, and that some country electorates may not furnish the official count figures until Monday.

AMENDED RESULTS. SIR- JOHN LUKE IN THE LEAD. WELLINGTON, Nov. 15. Amended rethrins from the Wellington North isealt -give Sir John Luke (Reform) 5070 votes and Mr C. H. Chapman (Labour) 5062, the majority for Sir John Luke now being eight. Mr Chapman on Wednesday night was credited with a: majority of 60 through a package of 34 votes being credited to Mr Chapman, instead of for Sir John Luke. Dunedin South promised to provide food for 'speculation. Mr Ha'll had a. majority of only 20, and there were 605 absentee votes, 204 postal ajid nine seamen’s' votes to conic. Those votes were counted to-day and the position now i!s unchanged, as follows: Haill 4224, Taverner 4216, Todd 2047. AUCKLAND, Nov. 15.

Changes in the figures for two Auckland scats, compared with those given laist night, a,rc ais follow: — Auckland West.—Savage 4932, Spiers 3788, Adenine 1921. Majority for Savage 1144. There are. 839 absentee votes to conic. Waitemafa- —Harris 4222, Gravil'le 3946. Majority for Harrisis' 276. There are 1096 absent votes to' come. In Auckland Eate.t, where Mr Donald has a, majority of 236 over Mr Lee, there are 816 absent votes. In 1 Grey Lynn, where Mr Fletcher has a. majority of 1.01 over Mr Bartram, -there are 652 absent votes. In the .other districts 1 the absent votes ca,n have no effect on the results.

INCREASED LABOUR STRENGTH

LEADER EXPRESSES SATISFACTION. MASTERS OF THE SITUATION. WESTPORT, Nov. 15. This morning Mr. H. E. Holland. Leader of the Labour Party, made the following statement available, to the Press : “Never in the history of _ Australasia. has there been so crushing a defeat of the Government as that experienced' by the Coates Administration yesterday. In 1925, advertised and/ extolled in almost every _ newspaper, Mr. Coates went up like a rocket, and yesterday came down like a stone, and even in his. own eonsituenev his majority has been considerably reduced. While I am extremely "satisfied 1 at the substantial increase’in. Labour representation in the House, and by the fact that my own constituency has. given me the 1 largest straight-out majority in the Dominion, T regret very much the defeat of Mr. Lee and Mr. Bartram for Auckland East and Grev Lynn respectively. They are both valued members, and. I have no doubt whatever that in good time, both seats will he recovered. In a number of cases where we failed to win our own organisation, was Ja'lcing, and we left the selection of some of our candidates all too late, and. unlike our opponents of both other parties. we were heavily handicapped by lack of funds. Indeed, there were not ii few constituencies which wo were compelled to leave uncontestod because we were unable to finance candidatures. Notwithstanding these mistakes and, diffi'idties, which T hope will he avoided and overcome in future on tests, we have made a most siguifio:tnt< forward move, find: now find ourselves in a position where we are masters o.f the situation for the time being, for the result of yesterday’s poll leaves matters where neither of the other two parties can cany on without our consent. “It goes without saying that we will not under any circumstances vote to hold the present Government in power. ;ind* in any case T do not anticipate Mr. Coates’ and his Ministers will seek to continue in office after the debacle of yesterday. “The country is entitled to expect the. Prime Minister will meet Parliament or, alternately, that he will lose i:o time in tendering the resignation of hi-s Cabinet.

“It has been suggested that prior to going out of office Mr. Coates will make a certain number of appointments to the Legislative Council. It is hardly necessary to say that in face of the people’s verdict such a, move would amount to abuse of the. powers

held l by the defeated Government, and would, moreover, constitute a grave political scandal. “Sir Joseph Ward could only hold office at the will of the Labour Party, and since a. majority of his followers have made public statements repudiating the idea that- they would vote with Labour, it does not appear to be likely that they would agree to a Ward Government that would be largely subject to the dictation of the Labour Partv. “This being so, and since in the circumstances a! Labour Government is not a- possibility, it follows that, failing a fusion of the two anti-Labour parties, there must be another appeal to the electors very shortly. “In my opinion there is no material lino of demarcation. between the policies of the Reform and United Parties. and an amalgamation of those parties is both logical and likely, the more especially sin~e during Quite a number of rears they have voted, together in the House in opposition to the Labour Partv. At the same, time I would warn Labour organisations that if a fusion of our opponents is not consummated we must be prepared to face a noth A-- general election at short notice.” DIFFICULT TO ESTIMATE. IMMEDIATE POLITICAL FUTURE'.

I COUNTRY SHOULD RE FIE ST CONSIDERATION. WELLINGTON, .Nov. 10. The following statement was made by the Prime Minister: “The people have had their opportunity, and have expressed their views. We have worked hard and have done all that in our opinion was best, always placing our country first. The immediate future, go far as the political parties are concerned, is difficult to estimate, and 1 can only hope that whatever may be the outcome of the situation our country will be the first consideration of Parliament. When the final figures are received I will take the first opportunity of consulting my colleagues. Naturally, I regret the result and extent! my sympathy to those good fellows who have fought hard, and who have gone down in the battle. J desire to thank all those who have loyally supported us. and 1 ask, them to be of good cheer in their hour of trial. They may rely on us to do the right thing.” •‘REMARKABLE ELECTION.” WHAT ENGLISH PAPERS SAY. (Australian Tress Association.) LONDON, Nov. 15. “New Zealand polities never lack dramatic quality,” says the “Daily Telegraph.” The country will now again experience the disadvantage of the three-narty system. “Th:? differences between the Reform and Liberal programmes is, almost too subtle to be distinguished here, but it may be suspected that Sir Joseph Ward’s advocacy of development loans of £70,000,000 from which he would make advances to farmers on easy terms, and his proposal's to subsidfel? minor industries has pleased many voters, who regard Mr J. G. Coates; a» an undidv stem economist.’ , The “Daily Chronicle” remarks that i New Zealand has been through a most I remarkable election. Tin? United-Liberal I Party under Sir Joseph Ward scored a 1 striking success at short notice. The ••eisTt was obtained by the Liberals definitely opposing both the other parties, offerimr voters who disliked either extreme a distinct third alternative.