WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

APPROACHING GENERAL ELECTION. THE PAST AND THE PRESENT (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, May 18. The refusal of Mr Coates to accept the proposal of Mr Forbes for the “fusion” of the political • parties and the disinclination of the Prime Minister to prolong his negotiations with the''Leader of the Opposition, apparently leave no alternative to a general election towards the close ot the current year. Mr Coates, no doubt, has good tactical reasons, not unassociated, of course, with aspirations for the retention of the identity of his , party, and-for a reversal cf the debacle which overtook it at the last general election. Mr Forbes, on the f other hand, it would appear from his fijank statements of the difficult position of the country and its needs, is less concerned just now about party than he is about the Dominion at large. He was quite content to leave the contest for the vacant Hauraki seat with Mr Coates and Mr H. li. )i Holland, but he was challenged to the fj contest and so compelled to take the .! fima, k ' THREE YEARS AGO, What the HaUi'aki contest will bring forth at the approaching by-el-ection remains to bo seen; but at the ,geneial election of three years ago the late Mr Hall polled, 3,826 votes for Reform; .Mr Allan, who is again m the field - for United-,' 2935, and Mr Petrie who represented Labour, 2411 votes. The newspapers credited .this as a majority of 89,1, for .Mr Hall, while as E fhatte.r of 1 fact, that - gentle.-. •mahj ;! taking the votes of the United and Labour candidates into account, was, in a minority of 1520. Just half the European and Maori candidates returned at the last general election, it may be well to state, were in similar, case, and the Dominion still plumes itself upon the democratic character of its parliamentary representation! But this is a twice told! tale. The fact that the members of the present House represent 'fewer than half the electors .who recorded, their votes in, 1928, however, might be quoted by Mr Coates as a' reason for an early dissolution. ■ , THE LAST GENERAL.: ELECTION. ' ’

The debacle of'-the Reform Party at the last general was -no less suprising than was the extraordinary, revival of the United Party, as the Liberal Party came to. be dubbed, after a long sojourn in the wilderftess. An anulysis of the decline in the Reform vote ili the sbven large fclectofal districts Will, bear repetition. Yh Auckland (28

*bho R*tf(f/riv vote dropped by 40,0 $> votes j in Taranaki (4 constituencies) by 1378 jin Wei' lingtan"‘(ls constituencies) by 4433; 'in’ Marlborough-Nelson (5 constituenfries) by 413; in Canterbury (11 contrt'itiiencies) by 8021; and in Otago "'(l?* constituencies) by 2582. Hawkes '"“Bay was the only group' in which the "party held its own and here it had an ' increase of 2101 upon its figures of 1925. The increase of the United

Party, which previously had been styled “National,” was no less than 39,723 votes in Auckland; 5164 in Taranaki; 8135 in „Wellington; 7475 in Marlborough; 10,011 in Canterbury and 11,318 in Otago. In Hawkes Bay United lost 1404 votes, but still retained its one seat there against three Reform members and one. Labour member. PROSPECTS. Labour also increased its polling m :*?f|t92B, and so contributed substantially “"to the Reform debacle. *‘ln Auckland <&}& increased its vote by 8694, comparwfth jta record r of the previous elseating a previous Reform member; by 1500 in Wellington and by 2378 in Christchurch ; but it lost ground ■in Mariborough-‘lS T e}4on by 2573 yotes, and in Otago by 4/584 votes, while in Taranaki it put up no candidate and cast its votes apparently in favour of the United candidate, Mr Coates’s St task now is to recover 40,000 ' votes, one half of those he lost in 1928, and to hold at least a corresponding portion of the new votes that will be cast, At the moment' the task looks no x. small one, but Mr Forbes’s obvious candour and sustained efforts having made a wide-spread impression upon an observant public. Much will depend upon the developments of the approaching' session of Parliament; but at the; moment the prestige of the United Party appears to be in the ascendant.