THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3879, 4 December 1928, Page 3

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

REFORM LOSES BAY OF ISLANDS SEAT. The Government has lost the Bay of Islands seat, held on the returning officers’ final figures by one vote by Mr. A. Bell, the Magisterial recount, completed on Saturday, having resulted in victory for Mr. H. M. Rushworth (Country Party)' by two votes. v The final return had given the Reform candidate a total of 3849 votes, the Country Party nominee 3839 votes, and the Liberal-Labour representative (Mr. R. E. Hornblow) 351 votes. Informal votes totalled 58. The recount, which reveals fairly substantial alterations in all the totals, resulted as under : H. M. Rushworth (C.) 3820 A. Bell (R.) 3818 R. E. Hornblow' (Lib.-Lab.) 349 Informal *== Majority for Rushworth 2 ' STATE OF PARTIES. Through the Government’s loss of the Bay of Islands seat the state of the parties now'is: — Reform 28 United 27 Labour 19 Independent 5 Country 1 The Government has now lost 24 seats against Labour’s three and the United’s two. The Government gained one seat, the United’s 18, Labour 8, Independents 3, and the Country Party one. OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

' Parliament was opened by Commission at 2.30 p.m. this afternoon. The Commissioners, appointed by His Excellency the Governor-Gen-eral, were the Hon. Sir Walter Carncross, the Right Hon. Sir Francis Bell, the Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes, and the Hon. Sir William Hall-Jones.

In view of the altered strength of the parties, the House presented a very different appearance from that of the last Parliament, in which a good three-quarters of the seating accommodation in the Chamber was occupied by Government members. Now, however, the needs of the Reformers are met by the Ministerial block and portion of the cross-benches facing Mr Speaker’s right. The Labour-Socialists* no longer the official Opposition, occupied the remainder of that block, and the greater portion of the adjacent cross-benches, while the United Party utilised all the Opposition benches, and some of the second block occupied by Labour.