ACTIVE PREPARATIONS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19423, 7 September 1937, Page 5

ACTIVE PREPARATIONS

NATIONAL CANDIDATES WELLINGTON PROVINCE (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. The overwhelming defeat of the Forbes-Coates forces in last general election had a contributing factorapart from the great change in public opinion—in the serious lack of organisation. The former Government forces endeavoured in a few months to com plete an organisation which their opponents on the Labour benches had intensively undertaken for at least three years. However, the reorganised party under the Nationalist banner Is not going to be again caught napping if the advanced condition of the preparations in Wellington province Is an indication of the general state of Opposition organisation in the constituencies. It is hardly time for official announcements of Nationalist candidates, but plans are so far completed that a reliable picture can now be given of how the fight will take place next general election in this area. Wellington Central Seat One of the most intriguing developments relates to the Hon. P. Fraser, whose stronghold of Wellington Cen tral, which gave him a majority exceeding 4000, has been somewhat undermined by the recent boundary changes. An essential working-class constituency has been seriously "diluted" from Mr. Fraser's viewpoint by the inclusion of a thickly popu lated middle class suburb which may not be so whole-heartedly on the Labour side as the slice of territory lost to the Minister of Education. The new development is regarded by the Nationalists as so promising that a prominent business man is seriously considering making a tilt at a once impregnable Labour fortress. Wellington North, lost to Opposition forces through the distribution of nearly 6000 votes among two rival anti-Labour candidates, enabling Mr. Chapman to win with 4468 votes, is shaping more in the direction of a straight contest. Mrs. Knox Gilmer, a daughter of the former Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon, has already announced her intention to make another bid for the seat, and it is probable that she may secure the Opposir tion nomination because the former party nominee, Mr. C. A. L. Treadwell, has a friendly eye on Rangitikei, now represented by a minority member in Mr. Ormond Wilson. Hon. J. G. Cobbe's Next Fight Actively maintaining his interest in the campaign, the Hon. J. G. Cobbe will not be deterred by the disappearance of Oroua from the electoral map. The changes have thrown his main sources of support into Manawatu, for that electorate now includes the Borough of Feilding. Therefore Mr. Cobbe's next fight will be against Mr. C. L. Hunter, who is so much n minority representative that the first returns suggested a small majority for Mr. Linklater, the retiring member. Wellington West is a new seat carved out of Wellington Suburbs and fragments of Otaki. and Hutt. It includes Kelburn and Karori, and therefore is a promising field for Mr. R. A. Wright, who last election withstood the Labour landslide in a remarkable manner, for his opponent was extremely able and well backed by Labour organisation. Wellington Suburbs disappeared in the re-making of the map, but it emerges under a new name with an area regarded as thoroughly promising by its old member.