DEFEAT BECOMES VICTORY

Southland Times, Issue 23647, 24 October 1938, Page 6

DEFEAT BECOMES VICTORY

Mr Kyle Succeeds In Riccarton RESULT CHANGED BY OFFICIAL COUNT POSTAL VOTES DECIDING FACTOR (United Press Association) CHRISTCHURCH, October 23. Securing 195 of the postal votes for 4 the Riccarton seat, Mr H. S. •S. Kyle, the National candidate and sitting member in the last Parliament, has turned a close defeat into a narrow victory. On the first count, Mr Kyle was 38 votes behind Mr T. H. Langford, the Labour candidate. The final figures show that of the votes actually cast in booths, Mr Kyle got 6066 and Mr Langford 6089.

Absentee and postal votes were cast as follows: . , Absentee. —Kyle 236, Langford 254. Informal, three. Postal.—Kyle 195, Langford 70. Informal 2. Seamen’s votes. —Langford one. Declaration votes. —Kyle 5, Langford Mr Langford said today that he had not then considered applying for a magisterial recount.

LABOUR’S MAJORITY REDUCED FIVE SEATS STILL IN DOUBT The effect of Mr H. S. S. Kyle’s success in the official count in the Riccarton electorate is to reduce the Labour Party’s majority in the House of Representatives by two. On the basis of the first count Labour had 54 seats in the House and National 24, a Labour majority of 30. The removal of Mr T. H. Langford’s name from the list of successful candidates and the addition of Mr Kyle’s reduces the Labour majority to 28. The comparative strengths of the parties in the new and old Parliaments now are:—

The tremendous increase in the number of postal and absentee votes recorded for every electorate has led to an increase in the number of seats in doubt. It is estimated that over the 76 European electorates there is an average of 800 postal and absentee votes. On the basis of the average it is reasonable to assume that any result where the majority on the first count was less than 200 is in some doubt. There 'were six such results but the announcement of the final figures for Riccarton reduces the number of doubtful seats to five, of which three at present favour Labour and two National.

The number of postal and absentee votes to be counted in the Waitaki electorate where Mr D. C. Kidd (National) has a majority of 62 over Mr D. Barnes (Labour) is 651. In 1935 Mr Barnes secured 243 of the total of 438 postal and absentee votes and his nearest opponent 156. Thirty-six went to a third candidate. There are 781 postal and absentee votes to be counted in Mid-Canterbury where Mr A. N. Grigg (National) has a lead of only 48 over Mr H. E. Herring (Labour). Mr Herring secured 255 of the postal and abseritee votes in 1935, 203 going to his nearest opponent and 154 to a third candidate. The official results of these doubtful seats should be known within the next few days but the possibility of longer delay in absolute finality being reached for one or two of the seats is strong, for defeated candidates who are dissatisfied with the result of a close poll have recourse to a recount on application to a Magistrate.

OFFICIAL COUNTS IN OTHER CENTRES CHRISTCHURCH EAST (United Press Association). CHRISTCHURCH, October 22. The Christchurch East election final increases the majority of Mr H.' T. Armstrong (Labour) by 298 votes. The figures’now are:— ARMSTRONG 10,561 K. Armour (National) 3,382 Majority for Armstrong 7197

The finals for Mid-Canterbury and Waitaki will not be available till the middle of next week. ROTORUA (United Press Association) ROTORUA, October 22. The official count for the Rotorua electorate, which was completed today, gave the sitting Labour member, Mr A. F. Moncur, a majority of 1642 against the National candidate, Mr H. W. Nixon, an increase of 205 on the majority given Mr Moncur by the preliminary count. There were 977 absentee and postal votes, 98 of the absentee votes being disallowed. Mr Moncur received 491 absentee votes, and Mr Nixon 258. The postal votes were allocated as follows:—Nixon 73, Moncur 57., The final figures were; MONCUR 6201 Nixon 4559 Informal 73 Majority for Moncur 1642 The figures for the preliminary count were: Moncur, 5655; Nixon, 4218.

Details of the final count are: KYLE 6502 Langford 6415 Majority for Kyle 87 Informal 65 Total votes recorded 12,982

New Old LABOUR 53 55 NATIONAL 25 19 INDEPENDENTS 2 6

The doubtful seats are: ;— Present Electorate Party Lead Masterton L. 167 Bay of Islands L. 177 Bay of Plenty L. 160 Waitaki N. 62 Mid-Canterbury N. 48