GENERAL ELECTION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 67, 21 March 1938, Page 8

GENERAL ELECTION

I SOUTH ISLAND SEATS PLANS OF NATIONAL PARTY. ASPIRANTS FOR NOMINATION. CHRISTCHURCH, March 19. It is considered likely in National Party circles that either Mr. D. Jones, a former Minister lor Agriculture, and a member of the Executive Commission of Agriculture, or Mr. M. E. Lyons, secretary to the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association, will be selected to contest the MidCanterbury seat at the next general election. The selection will be made at Rakaia on March 24. Doubts whether the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes would again seek election have been removed by the assurance given the National Party by the former Prime Minister that he will again contest the Hurunui seat it desired and the names of Mr. Gladstone Ward, a son of the late Sir Joseph Ward, Mr. A. M. Carpenter, a farmer of Fernside, Mr. H. McMillan, a storekeeper, of Ouruhia, Mr. Hiram Hunter, and Mr. W. Ashe, a farmer of Ohoka. are likely to go to the National selection ballot in the Kaiapoi electorate. Mr. D. C. Kidd, chairman of the Crown Tenants’ Association, a member of the Canterbury Land Board, and a prominent local body man and farmer, has been selected as the National candidate for Waitaki, while Mr. H. W. Hall, a former Mayor of Timaru, will contest the seat against the sitting member. Mr. Clyde Carr. The sitting member, Mr. T. D. Burnett, will again contest the Temuka seat. Mid-Canterbury, regarded as a Reform stronghold until Mr. J. Connolly defeated Mr. D. Jones, is considered by the National Party to be one of its best organised electorates in the South Island. The selection will be made finally on March 24, and at this stage it appears that the two most favoured nominees are Mr. Jones and Mr. Lyons. The National candidate for the Kaiapoi constituency, now represented by Mr. C. Morgan Williams, will be announced in about a month. The latest to announce his name is Mr. Gladstone Ward, who was for a time farming at Southbrook and is now a sharebroker in Christchurch, while one of the most prominent members of the Christchurch City Council has been asked to allow his name to go to the ballot.

The present indications are that tne Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes will be opposed by only a Labour candidate for Hurunui. At the last election Mr. Forbes defeated two candidates. Mr. J. W. Greenslade, a former Mayor of Greymouth, has been mentioned at a National nominee for the Westland seat, and the party expects that no difficulty will he found in selecting a suitable candidate.