A BIG AND VARIED FIELD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 27 June 1945, Page 4

A BIG AND VARIED FIELD

STANDING for Parliament in Britain seems as popular a sport as horse-racing in New Zealand, judging by the number of, starters who are crowding the barrier. There are 1675 of them to fill 640 seats. Only three—two Labour and one Conservative—have been returned unopposed. The other 1672 must fight for 637 seats in 617 constituencies, some of which elect two members, a practice which does not obtain in NevV Zealand. As the nomination deposit is £l5O a head, compared witli £lO in New Zealand, the contestants have built up a fund of over a quarter of a million pounds l and a number may be fairly certain of forfeiting their money.. Some among what yesterday’s cable message called the “eccentric” candidates, with elaborate designations, should be good bets as donors to the public purse and there will be those who would wager on the 47-year-old Northampton farmer as one depositloser. He is standing as an Independent against Mr Churchill for Woodford, ground on which Labour and Liberals thought it better not to entrench, both out of respect and from prudence. No one, however, will admire Mr Hancock’s game spirit more than the Prime Minister, who has already fought fifteen elections during his long and honourable political career, dating back to 1899, and has lost six of them. On this occasion his constituency, the Epping Division of Essex, has been divided. The number of« candidates is eclipsed only by the record field of 1929. Labour nominees predominate, y/ith a total of 601, whilie the Conservatives have 547 and the Liberals 305. Eighty eight women are standing, the largest number ever, nearly half of them carrying the banner of Labour. From now until the big day, sth July, the campaign is likely to be lively, with the results of the first British general election for nearly ten years not being known until at least three weeks after polling has finished on account of the large number of service votes to be recorded in many lands and also on sea.