WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1931, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

GENERAL ELECTION COUNTRY CONSTITUENCIES Special Cor re sp on dent. Wellington Nov. 26. Although the Wellington ruial constituencies are carrying on flier election campaigns somewhat more decorously than are tlie maj’rity cf the urban and suburban constituent es within the province they are displaying a keen interest in the constitution of the new Parliament. There are fifteen constituencies in the provincial distr’et, six practically within the confines of the capital city, and nine ing the rural constituencies .as they considerable centres as Palmerston North and Wanganui now assuming the distinction of citizenhood. Tahiti ythe rural constituencies as they stand in print Mr F. Langstone was fortunate enough, three years ag >, to meet two Independents of dfh rent colours in the contest for the Waimarino seat and so regain it on a minority vote for ■ Labour. Next week he will encounter Mr Waokrow, a Coalition United candidate, who single-handed will get him a* much more difficult task than any he yet has encountered. OLD HANDS. Mr W. A. Veitcb, who first came into t,he House of Representatives as a, member for Wanganui in 1 DTI, with a. sane Labour policy union? L’p epuipment, is "now on the threHiTl df Ins seventh Parliament with a

••■Vile wealth of experience and knowledge. With the goodwill of Lotli United and Reform behind him his seat is secure. Having expected more than he found on his return 'to Parliament after an absence of. twenty veal’s Mr -T. T. Hogan has taken up •in attitude in the present contest which well may prove his undoing. The Hon. T. G. Cobhe deservedly go-s back without the ordeal of a contest and with goodwill of Parliament and all the electors of Oroua. Reform in the terms of the. Coalition compact has Palmerston North, Manawatu and Otaki ticked-off to its custody and on paper it seems fairly certain to secure these seats. a c suming. of course, that the two parties play the game. DELICATE PROBLEMS. -Tdiffici.lt problem has arisen in the Wairarapa constituency where the Hon. A. D. , McLeod, a member of j thl i Coates Government, involved in the Reform debacle at the general election of 1928, has insisted upon standing for this seat in spite of the fact that Mr Forbes mid Mr Coates have assigned it to Colonel T. IV. McDonald wild wrested it from Mr McT.tpcl throe yearsi ego. Whether or not his personal friends and his many acquaintances ancl admirers will turn from the fifty-year resident of the district to a comparative stranger and at the- same time, perhaps, renounce their party ' and political leanings remains to be seen; but so far as the Labour vote goes in the constituency the bulk of it will be cast for Independent Reform rather than for Coalition United. As for the Masterson seat it is among Hie possibilities that Labour may disconcert both Coalition .and Fusion. THE CITY SEATS The prospects of the Wellington op tv seats do not appear to have undergone any change of consequence during the current week. Mr Peter Eraser, the Labour candid te for Wellington Central, i s 'filling the r le of party leader during the hectic comings and goings Of Mr H. E. Holland, much to the a vantage, it would «cem, of the remainder of the r “' n 'idates and their active f Hovers. None of the new Coalition aspirants to party honours, judging from their efforts up to date, appears to be mailing a great deal of progress on the platform, but Mr Forsyth seems to he mailing way against Mr Remote in Wellington East, and Air. Troup should rather more than hold his own against Mr- Chapman in Wellington North if Sir John Luke, by his illtimed appearance upon the scen°, does not detach more than a hundred or two of the old die-hard Unitcds air 1 Reformers, who. according to tlm i personal prejudices, dislike the idea of fusion.