The N.Z. Times TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7029, 18 January 1910, Page 4

The N.Z. Times

TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1910. THE BRITISH ELECTIONS

WITB WHim ie INCORPORATKD THP. '*WRLtiINOIOM INI BFSNDBNT." ESTABLISHED IM6.

While it is yet too early to come to more than a provisional conclusion regarding tho ' probable results of the British elections, the details so far available indicate that the Tories will have to make up a great deal more leeway during the next few days than they succeeded in recovering on the first series of polls. If the results of voting published yesterday and to-day bo taken, for the moment, to adumbrate the verdict of the whole country they point to a very substantial Liberal victory. Though Mr, Balfour’s followers have mado certain gains-, these are out of'all proportion to what the situation demanded from their point of view. When the election campaign commenced the Tories were faced with the necessity, in order to get even a bare majority in the new House, of capturing one out of every three seats held by the Liberals. So far they have - captured one in eight.. - Excluding .. the Nationalist strongholds, there arc 505 seats , of which the occupancy has yet to be decided. The advocates of Tariff Reform and Veto by the Peerage have to hold their own in 136 of these andwrest 170., from , the party in possession in order to be even barely successful. If Saturday’s voting he. maintained they cannot do it, or anything like it. , Allowing , for the same ratio of Unionist successes the position' then would be a House of Commons in which Mr Asquith had 373 followers and Mr Balfour 214, the 83 Nationalists making up the total of 670. , '’- « * * . * * The polling so far shows no indication of the colossal stampede, required ito give Mr Balfour ■ a majority, of even 1. Wales is practically certain to go solidly Liberal, as it did in 1906, and Scotland is overwhelmingly Radical. Really, Mr Balfour has only the English electorates to work upon, and as the Liberals are holding their own very well indeed up to the present, the only change it fie possible to look for is a comparatively slight reduction, of the enormous Government majority. Figures - . giving- “the state of parties ” are, just now. entirely uninformative., The significance of . the contests lies in the changes made in tho strength of parties in relation to tho constituencies in which elections have been decided. So far the representation of 89 seats is, settled—72 by vote and 17 were uncontcsted. In the 72 contested areas the Tories have gained 18 scats formerly held . , by Liberals; Liberals have reversed the position in 5, and Labour has gained a seat from 'the sitting Tory. In 47 of the seats the voting made no change in the representation, and there is no alteration in party strength by tho uncontcsted returns. Thus the actual Tory gain is 11 seats out of 89, and the movement of party with that number of constituencies is as follows: 1906. 1910. Tories ... ... 31 41 Liberal ... ... 40 34 Labour ... ... 0 8 Nationalists ... 6 6 Of the remaining seats the position at the dissolution of Parliament was Liberal and , ... 368 Unionist. ... ... 136 Nationalist ... ... 77 581 from which it will be seen how much greater an impression it is necessary for Mr Balfour to make on these electorates .than he did upon those in which polling took place on Saturday. • • • The most noticeable feature of the polling has been the way iu which the metropolitan districts of London have remained firm to Liberalism and the very sound vote recorded in and around Manchester' for Freetrade. The great surprise in the Tory debacle of 1906 was tho unseating of the Unionist' members for tho London boroughs and'the defeat of Mr Balfour at Manchester. This year we have-not yot had any,sensations of this kind though we are not without certain unexpected. tidings. Judged, by the standing- and weight of the men who have been defeated the Unionists have lost most heavily by the rejection of Air Joynson-Hicka, at Manchester, and Lieutenant Oarlyon Bellairs at West Salford. 'JTio

former was one of the loading exponents of tariff reform, and, though • it cannot be said that Jhe favoured ' the Lords revolutionary seizure o i powers—indeed, -he declared that ‘ 'it s would be a good thing for our party it all those Dukes oould he put under lock and key”—his rejection is a. severe blow to the cause he championed. Lieutenant Oarlyon Bellairs , was originally a Liberal, but he was • a most industrious scaremonger as \ well and finally wont over to the - enemy in consequence of several viof lent disputes with the First Lord of the Admiralty. , On the other hand the Government received an unpleasant smack in the face at Wolvort Hampton where Sir Henry Norman, i secretary of the Budget League, went 1 down before Sir A. Hickman, a Unionist and tarifhte. Sir Henry reI cently complained that his duties kept him so busily engaged that ho , “had no time to go to his tailors.” The electors have taken pity on Km apparently and given him the noces--1 sary leisure. The ■ Liberals made notable gains at Grimsby and Darlington and it will have been observed that at Plymouth and Southampton the Balfourites were easily defeated.’ I The Unionists, however, did very well at Bath and Devon port, four Liberals being sent to the righv about. King’s Lynn has again, done itself tie honour of electing Mr T. G.' Bowles, who, after representing ,tho district for fourteen years, was defeated at last election by Lieutenant Bellairs. Hr Bowles is an ardent freetrader and a valuable 'contributor to all discussions on ’ finance and defence. Mr Bowles " made two attempts to. get hack to • Parliament at by-elections, but withI out success. : H!o. it was, ;wlio opposed Hr Balfour when: that gentleman L stood for the city of London after 5 his heating at Manchester ,by Hr f Horridge. . ,