THE BY-ELECTION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20650, 26 June 1935, Page 10

THE BY-ELECTION.

Campaign Preparations in Hand. SOME NOVEL FEATURES. Polling day: July S 4. Nominations close: July S, at noon. Candidates: E. JT. Hills (Independent Labour). M. E. Lyons (Government). T. H. McCombs (Labour). Notwithstanding the majority of 2669 votes which the late Mrs E. R. McCombs secured at the by-election for the Lyttelton seat in September, 1933, there are indications that the campaign for the election that has been necessitated by' her death will be fought with exceptional vigour. At present the result appears very open. Arrangements have already been made for the opening of the campaign in Lyttelton next week. Messrs Lyons and McCombs will arrive in Christchurch to-morrow morning. Mr Lyons left for Wellington on Monday evening to attend the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, and while he has been in Wellington he has taken the opportunity of conferring with members of the Government regarding the election campaign. Air McCombs has been granted leave of absence for the duration of the campaign by the Board of Governors of the Auckland Technical College, and his arrival in Christchurch will coincide with the return of Mr Lyons. The Labour campaign will be opened by the leader of the Opposition, Mr M. J. Savage, at Lyttelton on Tuesday evening. Mr McCombs will be on the platform at that meeting, and will probably give his first address to the electors the following evening. Mr Lyons will open his campaign at Lj'ttelton on Wednesday evening, and on the following evening will address two meetings at Woolston, the first in the McDonald Memorial Hall, Aldwin’s Road, at 7.15, and the second in the Woolston School at 8 o’clock. A Lone Hand. It is Mr Lyons’s determination to conduct his campaign without any outside assistance, and the only help he will receive will be from the local organisation of the National Political Federation, comprising the Reform and United Parties. An interesting feature of the campaign will be that it will be the first election in which Mr Savage will take part since his appointment as Leader of the Opposition; and the result of the by-election may have an important bearing on the General Election to be held at the end of this year. Mr Savage will make four speeches next week, and will probably then leave the electorate and return towards the close of the campaign. The national president of the Labour Party (Mr Walter Nash, M.P.) will also take part in the campaign, and Mr F. Langstone, M.P., has already taken up his duties as organiser for the Labour Party, but it is not the intention of the campaign organisers at present to bring in other outside speakers. History Made. The Lyttelton electorate has already made historv in returning the first woman to the New Zealand Parliament, but there are several other respects ?n which it is unique. It is the only electorate which has been represented by the widow of a former member and in which one of the candidates for election is a son of two previous members. It is the only single-member electorate that has been represented by two members at the same time. This happened immediately following the General Election in 1925. Mr Lyons, who was the Reform candidate on that occasion, was declared elected and drew his Parliamentary pay for about four months, but was then unseated bv the Electoral Court, and the late Mr J. McCombs was awarded the seat and drew Parliamentary pay from the date of the General Election. It is the only electorate in which two by-elections, caused by death, have occurred during the term of one Parliament. Apart from the brief period in which Mr Lyons held the seat, there have been only three members for the electorate in the past forty-five years, and all have died in harness.

Part of the electorate, the Chatham Islands, is over 400 miles from the mainland, and the returns of the voting there have to be received by radio.