THE PATEA SEAT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 6912, 24 July 1901, Page 3

THE PATEA SEAT.

There was some excitement in the lobbies on Monday (writes the Wellington correspondent of the Hawkc's Bay Herald) over the news that a re-count of the votes in the Patca election had reduced Mr John Hcslop's majority to one, and a strong Ministerialist frankly admitted to me that "he did not knowiiow it would go now," It appears that the returning officer omitted to open a polling booth at Makirikiri, an important portion of the electorate, containing about ono hundred voters, and this may possibly upset the election. In any case an official scrutiny will now take place, and this may yet put Mr Hascldcn at the top of the poll.

The fact that Mr Hnscldcn polled so heavily at Patea against all the Ministerial influence that was exerted on Mr Heslop's behalf, would seem to indicate that that part of the country still contains a great many people who arc opposed to Mr Scddon's policy. There is no doubt whatever that the Patca people havo been badly treated by their late member (Mr George Hutchison) withholding his resignation for over a year, and it plainly shows the stato of feeling in a district which has been practically disfranchised for so long a period when the Opposition candidates makes such a respectable fight.