MR K. S. WILLIAMS RETIRING

Northern Advocate, 28 June 1935, Page 3

MR K. S. WILLIAMS RETIRING

BAY OF PLENTY SEAT

MR J. T. MERRY NOMINATED

[Special to “Northern Advocate.”] OPOTIKI, This Day.

A meeting of Reform and Liberal supporters was held at Opotiki, when the Dominion organiser of the National party was present. Mr J. T. Merry was nominated as the National party candidate to contest the B.'.y of Plenty seat. It was stated that Mr K. S. Williams did not intend to seek x’e-elec-ticn.

Mr Merry is the Opotiki County clerk and secretary of the Opotiki Hospital Board.

There was no election contest in the Bay of Plenty electorate last general election, Mr Merry, who was prepared to represent Liberal interests, standing down to avoid vote-splitting. Mr A. G. Hultquist, the Labour candidate, is the only other candidate at present nominated to oppose the National candidate.

Mr Williams was born at the Bay of Islands in 1870, and was educated at Heretaunga School, Hastings, and Christ College, Christchurch, where he was the captain of the college Rugby team. In 1894 he took up sheep farming at Matahia, on the .East Coast. He was keenly interested in •local government, and was a member of 'the Tokomaru Harbour Board, the Waiapu Hospital .Board, and the Waiapu County Council. He was chairman of the latter local body when in 1920 he was elected to Parliament as the member for Bay of Plenty, a seat which he has neld since then. Mr Williams was Minister of Public Works from 1926 to 1928. He has been promyiently associated with the freezing industry, and has owned several successful racehorses.