MOTUEKA BY-ELECTION

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 13

MOTUEKA BY-ELECTION

• POLLING TAKES PLACE TO-DAY. THRR.R CANDIDATES IN FIELD. The Motueka by-election will take place to-day. There are three candidates for the seat made vacant by the .deatn of Mr. G. C. Black, and all three candidates have been campaigning strenuously. The candidates are:-’ Mr. K. J. Holyoake (Coalition). Hon. R. McKenzie (Liberal-Labour)., Mr. P. C. Webb (Labour). ■ The result at the general election last year was:— G. C. Black (Independent) ...... 4180 K. J. Holyoake (Coalition-Reform) 3663 Mr. Holyoake was the official Coalition Reform candidate for Motueka at the general election last December, and was defeated by' Mr. Black. He is 29 years of age. For 15 years Mr. Holyoake has been interested in mixed farminghops, tobacco, fruit and dairying. He is keenly interested in sport, having represented Motueka-Golden Bay in the Seddon Shield Rugby contest for eight years. He his also represented Motueka for many years at lawn tennis. The Hon. Roderick McKenzie, who is 80 years of age, was a member of Parliament from 1893 to 1914. He was bom in Scotland in 1852 and came to New Zealand in 1869. He was returned to Parliament in 1893, defeating the celebrated Eugene O’Connor, “the Buller Lion.” Three years later he won the Motueka seat, which he continued to hold for the rest of his Parliamentary career. In 1906 he was elected Chairman of Committees of the House in succession to the Hon. John Millar. After the general election of 1908 he joined the Ward. Government as Minister of Public Works and Minister of Mines. Later he took over the Department of Road? and Bridges and the Ministery of Customs. In the 1913 election Mr. McKenzie was defeated in the Motueka contest by Mr. R. P. Hudson, and he has not since been seen in Parliament, but devoted his attention to his profession as an engineer and contractor. Mr. Webb is manager of the Point’ Elizabeth Co-operative Coal Miners’ Depot in Christchurch, but he is well known throughout the Motueka district, having represented the old Grey electorate in Parliament as a Labour member from 1913 until May, 1918. He was returned for Grey at a by-election

necessitated by the death of Sir Arthur Guinness, and was re-elected in 1914. In 1917 he resigned, but was re-elected unopposed. Subsequently he was called up for military service, but refused to accept a uniform, and was sentenced to imprisonment. The House of Representatives declined to grant him leave of absence while he was in prison, and his

seat was declared vacant in May, 1918. He was also deprived of his civil rights for a period of ten years. From 1921 to 1924 Mr. Webb was a member of Mr. R. Semple’s tunnelling party at Orongorongo, Wellington, and since then he ‘ has been engaged in the coal business. A portion of the old Grey electoral* fil included- in the Motueka M .