ELECTION RESULTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2330, 11 December 1914, Page 6

ELECTION RESULTS

THE government LEADING ' ■■CV l ' ■ ■ ' ' ■ 1 ■ CONINGENTERS' VOTES TO COME ;' A NUMBER OF SURPRISES STATE OF PARTIES Covernment'v....-......,....,...;....... G8 ' Opposition . ............... 28 Labour 8 UndeoldetJ . B SEATS GAINED GOVERNMENT. OPPOSITION. LABOUR. Dunedin. West ■ . Tatunarnmri l Dunedin Central Jlotueka . Wairarapa Dunedin North ' Nflfon. Waitaki . Wellington East Otaki .Wellington Central SEATS STILL IN DOUBT ' • . , Thb extent to'which the ultimate results may be influenced by the inclur ■ sion of the Expeditionary Force votes is shown in the following table, which is >• >. self-explanatory:— : , - , ' : ■ . ■ : ' Present • Expeditionary ■_ . . . . majority. .' Force votes. Taumarunui 152 V 254 —Wairarapa 22 ,: : . ' 131 Wellington East ;. ; 34" 178 .Dunedin Central. 1* ,201 * Opposition majority.

The results of yesterday's polling . cannot yet be stated with exactitude at •the moment. The Government hold 38 seats,-the Wardists. 29 seats and tho •Labour/Socialists 8 seats with one seat ■ yet to . come. A larg<? number of Ex- ... . peditionaiy Force votes and absentee h : .votes have still to '■ be taken- into ao-. ; count, however, and apart from the fact ' . that it may gain a majority of the four : 'Maori seats, it ,ia not unlikely that the , Government in the final count-may commands majority-of-four or five. - The ■ surprise of. the election was undoubtedly the defeat of the Hon; F. SI. B. Fisher : r in "Wellington Central. /: A . hard battle for the 'sfeat was takeii for granted, but oven Mr. Fisher's; strongest opponents wereadmittedly astonished at tho big margin gained by his'.opponent.:. A large ..crowd assembled; before the ''Evening Post". office,, packed densely in Willis Street and .extending down Mercer Street • almost to. tho Public Library.'. Noiso, cheering sometimesj and shouted hostile cries sometimes, and sometimes . were senseless ; rowdyism— this latter on. the part of a few people . only—made it impossible for apy can--1 didato to get a really good hearing: There was applause occasionally when candidates were spsakins, but it must ■have been given mainly by guess work, led possibly by those nearest the . balcony from which the : candidates spoke. Only a very few could possibly have heard /what was said by anybody. -The crowd was inado up largely' : of the enemies of tho Government, and no Government candidates could' get. a .■■■■ hearing. There, was a hostile demon- . stration against Mr. ; Fisher, . but he . smiled through ; it all, and acknowledged the plaudits of an indomitable . minority of his friends. He was the only defeated candidate, by the way, • ;who remembered to congratulate his taore fortunate opponent-.., It will be noticed that ( tho opponents of the Government spoke as. if the defeat of- . the Government was assured . 1 Round About the Booths. T)ie stir, and bustle in the streets and about the polling places;all through the V day.-; made it. evident that people' were taking, the business in hand very seriously. : Much' has been done, to rob .- election day of ihe carnival iasjject it used to wear, but the avoidance ot party 'displays, which the law enjoins, did - not in any way-hido-the suppressed excitement that ovorywhere obtained. As : usual the: strict letter: of the law. was . departed frprn in the matter of colours, and many motor-cars and other vehicles we'ro'i adorned with streamers and flags. The red badge of the Social Democratic . I'arty '.was also muchi in evidence. All partieis seemed-to have a free command

of motor-cars, and thoy were kept busily Hying throughout the day. .Reports from all quarters indicate t'bat polling proceeded.at a steady pace, and froih an early hour it ivqs believed that the voting 'would be heavy, the opposed parties pbtting forth their last ounce of strength.. In most-places tho machinery, of the polls.seemed to work smoothly, but at a few booths there were complaints of unnecessary delay. In some cases,, also, the admittance of voters, where a number were waiting, was conducted in rather a haphazard fashion. It would undoubtedly be an improvement if the - formation of a queue were insisted upon in every-case so that electors might be admitted in turn. Throughout the/day the Palais, de Danse in Vivian Street, tliei principal booth in-the. Central electorate, seemed to be a centre'of interest. In the crowd which gathered before tho doors and on the far 6ide of the street all parties were represented, and the different' sections maintained an eager , gossip of speculation. Many of the booths had an' attendant- group of onlookers, including peoplo who were prepared to look up' the roll'oil bohalf of inquiring electors, but' others were entirely .deserted except by the attendant officials and arriving and departing voters.. In the early part of the day the in< terest of the; election was overshadowed for a time by the'news of the destruction of three' German cruisers by a . .British squadron, but before lone the call /of - the political contest had resumed ' its undisputed hold upon the public mind. The closing of most of the shops and the hotels in-the afternoon-swelled the number of people for whom the election was the business of the day. Such a conjunction of closed shops and bustling streets, full of people and vehicles n-ov-ing in all directions, is, in fact, hardly ever Been except on election day. ' , ' . Posting the Returns. |. The election returns as they oame to hand were posted, upon The Dominion hoarding in LarSbton Quay, before which peoplo commenced to gather early in; the evening. . By nine o'clock fully ten thousand people had assembled, and most of them remained until after midnight. Even at one o'clock in the morning, when some returns were still coming in, fully a thousand people remained in the street before the hoarding. Upon the whole the results _of the various contests were' very, quietly received. Notable victories oh one side or the other were .cheered. A number of Government .and Opposition candidates spoke from the balcony on the hoarding during tho evening, and all were given a good hearing.