BAY OF PLENTY M.P.'S

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 2, 12 January 1942, Page 5

BAY OF PLENTY M.P.'S

THREE DIE IN OFFICE TWO FORMER MINISTERS During the past 30 yelars the l Bay of Plenty electorate has had only three representatives in Parliament, each of whom "died! in harness" and was not defeated at an election. The Hon. W. D. S. Mac Donald, Minister of Agriculture during the 1914-19 National Government period, retained the seat till he died. The Hon., K. ~S. Williams Avas the next representative of the Bay of Plenty. He was Minister of Public Works under Mr Coates in 1925-28. He died in 1935, shortly before the general election. Mr A. G. Hultquist gained the Bajr of Plenty scat in 1935 in a triangular contest, and retained it in *938 in a straight out contest. He went overseas last year as an officer of Divisional Signals. His death while in the Middle East terminated his six years service as member for "The Ba3'." Thus it seems a tradition that once elected, the member for "The Bay" retains the seat until his death. Future M.P.'s may regard this as a happy augury or a portent of disaster but there it is! Two representatives of this scattered electorate became Cabinet Ministers Mr Hultquist might also have carried on this tradition had lie returned safe and well from over seas. Will the new member, Mr ,W. Sullivan, also sit in the Cabinet Room? Who. can tell? Changes in the boundaries of the Bay of Plenty electorate have given Whakatane district a variety of locaJ members. Foi instance, at the 1919 general election the district was in the newly-constituted Rotorua electorate, which sent Mr Frank Hockly to Parliament for the next 9 years. The next alteration cf boundaries brought all the Rangitaiki Plains into Tauranga electorate, represented in the House by Mr (afterwards) Hon. C. E. Macmillan. The Whakatane River was then the boundary. Now the Rangitaiki River is the western boundary of the Bay ot Plenty electorate. Thus half the Plains under the care of the new M.P. and the other half under Mr F. W. Doidge—two brothers-in-arms in the National Party ranks.