MOTUEKA SEAT

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1932, Page 5

MOTUEKA SEAT

LABOUR VIEW MAJORITY AGAINST COALITION. \ \2 er Press Association — Copy right ) WESTPORT, December 2. Speaking during an interval at the annual ball of the Westport Branch of the Labour Party this evening, Mr H. E. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, said : Many people would be curious to know the basis on which the Prime Minister arrived at his conclusion that the voting in the Motueka by-election constituted an endorsement of the Coalition Governntent’ s policy. The figures so far available showed that 3,777 vote s had been cast for the Government, and 3,953 votes against it leaving the Government in a minority of well on towards 200. The presence of the anti-Government Indeperfdent candidate was the sole factor that madie ,victory possible . for the Coalition. 'Mr McKenzie, throughout his campaign, was bitterly antagonistic to the Government, and he made that fact doubly apparent when he spoke on election night. It wa g clear that the overwhelming majority of the votes cast for the Independent candidate came from electors who. were wholly hostile to the Government, if there had been a atraightout contest between the Government and the Opposition candidates, Mr Webb must have won. The fact that the Coalition candidate had 'dissociated himself from the fundamentals of the Government policy, such as the pensions reductions and the wages was in itself evidence of the unpopularity of that policy.