WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 May 1930, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

PARNELL ELECTION.

ANOTHER. MINORITY REPRESENTATIVE.

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, May 8

No one possessing the true sporting spirit will grudge Mr W. P. Endean his success in the contest of the Parnell seat yesterdayy - At the general election of eighteen months ago, the Reform Party, to'which Mr Endean is attached, fared very badly in the nine Auckland constituencies. Labour, with 39,240 votes captured four of these seats; "United with 35,358 votes, the same number and Reform with 24,03 S votes only one, and that one labelled independent” in the wisdom of the astute member for Waitemata, who scrambled back to the House with a majority of only 315 over the United candidate, to say nothing of 2,485 votes cast against him by Labour. It is due to the member for Waitemata, Kow ever* to: say, that, whije he still wears on .occasions the mantle of independence, he dofts it cheerfully enough at his- party’s-.call. -:. This will, explain why the,local morning newspaper does not include: him in the list of Indepenents” by which it,reduces the presonneh of the-United Party. • ■ v;

fSTRENCTH OF PARTIES.

As' the Hon. W, Dowme S,tqwnrt ex-, plained in advance the appearance of 'Mr Ejndean, ,in the House of Representatives in, place of a United member who wished to., change, his political creed will not materially affect the strength of parties ifor the time being. Reform is now able to claim twenty-nine seats in a House of eighty, but it is confronting fifty seats it cannot hope to capture and the Speaker is not likely to he called, upon to determine its fate. There is no need, however, to belittle the progress Reform has made by ousting a faint-hearted opponent and filling his place by a capable friend who has made up,hip jnind. At the 1928 election the, the United 'candidate votes the Reform candidate 4,793 and the Labour candidate 1,661. At yesterday’s election Reform led with 4,607, while United polled Labopr 2,035. This .showed a decline of 186 in the Reform vote, 2520 in the United vote and an. increase oif 401 in the Labour vote.

vi l " ,y ‘ ’ yf: SMALL. PROGRESS

Tlie totalj vote—if the, figures available at .the time of .writing, are porrect show a decline of 2,302, from .12,096 to 9,794, and apparently Labour is the party that should be rejoicing. Mr Jenkins,. the/. retiring United .member who did not secure the Reform nomination, jie thought was, awaiting him secured 46.6 per cent, of the the votes poll ed. .in 1928. Yesterday Mr Endean secured 47.1- per edrit. of the ( votes. p011ed,,.a,,'; ed,,.a,,'; measurable advance upon the figxirea of his. predecessor, but ript a very impressive one. It would _seem that * there [ 'had been the usual apatfiy accompanying tliis by-eiectidn and that MrEndean,' to'kis credit, had made"’the" most 'compeiHhg appeal. Like his immediate predecessor in the seat, he is a/ “minority” ‘ member of the Hous'e thus' bringing nineteen of the twentynine Reform members of the House under this category. One can but wonder tkat Mr Coates with eighteen years of parliamentary experience behind him, should still cling to a system of election which involves his party in such perils. / / '"

AS IT SHOULD BE

However apathetic the leader of the Opposition may be in regard to methods'- of election, he certainly knows how to bear success as well as to smile under defeat. He may not rise quite-to the same'heights in this respect as did Mr Phillip Snowden and Mr Stanley Baldwin in'the House of' Commons a "little while ago, on the silver anniversary of: the wedding, of the Chancellor of the Exchequer; but his allusions to Mr B. Jenkins and Mr J. S. Dickson and to Mr W. Donald and Mr T. Bloodworth when called upon for a speech last night, seem to have been entirely worthy of the occasion and himself. Althogether the principals in the campaign appear to have played their parts uncommonly well and while the crowds that surround the newspaper offices in Wellington were smaller than usual on such occasion they savoured of the good natured bent which accepts the revelations of the ballot with hearty goodwill. At half-past-eight the whole business was over and no one was perturbed.