LABOUR WINS

Northern Advocate, 25 July 1935, Page 8

LABOUR WINS

LYTTELTON SEAT CONTEST MR McCOMBS ELECTED. UNIQUE FAMILY RECORD. [Special to “ Northern ■ Advocate "1 CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The Labour Party scored a decisive victory in the by-election for the Lyttelton seat yesterday, when its candidate, Mr T. H. McCombs, obtained a majority of 1752 votes. The seat has been held by the McCombs family for 22 years. Results of the voting are as follows: T. H. McCombs (Labour) .. 5437 M. E. Lyons (Govt.) 3685 E. L. Hill (Ind. Labour) .. 103 G. S. Hamilton (Ind.) 46

Majority for McCombs 1752 Born in Christchurch in, 1904, Mr McCombs has had a brilliant scholastic career. He was educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, the Waitaki Boys’ High School and Canterbury College. He won the Charles Cook Memorial Research Scholarship in 1928, graduated Master of Science with honours in chemistry in 1929, and won a national research scholarship in 1929-30.

Mr McCombs has held a number of teaching appointments and for a fairly lengthy period he has been making experiments in wheat culture. He has also taken a prominent part in sport, gaining University blues at hockey and rowing. For some time he has been a member of the staff of the Seddon Memorial Technical College in Auckland. THE GOVERNMENT’S OPINION. REVIEW BY SIR A. RANSOM. i Syeczal to “Nortnern Advocate"! WELLINGTON, This Day. Reviewing the Lyttelton by-election last night the acting Prime Minister, Sir Alfred Ransom, made the following statement: “There is little more to be said at the moment than to congratulate Mr McCombs on achieving success at his first effort. Not only has he retained for his party that which had come to be regarded as a Labour stronghold, but he followed in the footsteps of his parents, making a unique record of successive family representation in New Zealand’s Parliament. “It is true that his majority is almost 100 votes less than the aggregate polled for his mother, Mrs Elizabeth McCombs, two years ago, and that fact may be attributed fairly to the calibre of his main opponent. Beyond any doubt,- Mr Lyons, the Government Party’s candidate, deserved praise for the courageous manner in which he contested the seat, and also for v the substantial measure of support he secured.

“Mr Lyons fought alone, and fought well, showing clearly in his platform work a keen knowledge of political problems and appreciation ,of the abnormal difficulties which have confronted the Government throughout a long period of work during a wide depression, a depression which necessitated the dutiful exercise of a policy inevitably unpopular, although demonstrably beneficial.

“It may be observed that the results of the contest show that the electorate had practically no interest at all in so-called Independents in political life. Two independent candidates failed to get 150 votes between them. “The contest was almost entirely confined to the Labour and Government candidates. Labour won, but its majority was cut down. There is probably as much, or as little, political significance in that as there is in the defeat of Mr Lyons, who has no reason to be discouraged at the result.” Last Year’s By-Election. The figures at the by-election in 1933 were:— Mrs E. R. McCombs (Labour) 6344 Mr F. W. Freeman (C.) 3675 E. L. Hills (Ind. Labour) .... 269 Majority for Mrs McCombs 2669