INVERCARGILL'S. RESULT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20642, 14 August 1930, Page 10

INVERCARGILL'S. RESULT.

Polline; day at Invercargill has given Mr. Vincent Ward, the United candidate, a lead sufficient to put the result beyond doubt. A margin of 492 votes is extremely unlikely to be upset by official recount or the addition of absentee votes. It is safe to say, therefore, that the United Party has held Invercargill—held it, according to definite reports which have not been contradicted, with official Labour support. Considering the voting at the last general election, the political history of the constituency, the long association of the name Ward with Southland, in recent years directly with Invercargill, if the party's candidate could not have won, then its position would have . been absolutely hopeless. In other words, if the United Party could not have held this seat with the candidate offered, what would its prospects have been in any seat? It must not be forgotten that in 1928 Invercargill returned Sir Joseph Ward with a majority of over 3000 votes; this overwhelming victory could not be attributed wholly to the personality of the candidate, since it was enormously greater than the margin by which he had won the seat in 1925. There is no doubt the constituency was caughfc up in the United Party boom which characterised the last election. The fact that it has so far altered its view, as the much reduced majority on what must be regarded as an excellent poll for a byelection indicates, should give the party cause for thought. Though it has won it cannot exactly claim to have had its policy gloriously vindicated. The Reform candidate has, in the circumstances, made an excellent showing in what was obviously an uphill fight. That he did not succeed in winning is no great surprise, nor should it be a discouragement to a man who has been described as having qualities eminently desirable in a public career. The winner, Mr. Vincent Ward, is to be congratulated on having made his entry into the world of affairs, and on being in a position to carry further the long association of the family name with the political life of New Zealand.