Mr. Rushworth Gains Decisive Majority

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 635, 11 April 1929, Page 1

Mr. Rushworth Gains Decisive Majority

BAY OF ISLANDS SEAT VICTORY BY OVER 400' VOTES (From Our Own Correspondent) KAWAKAWA, Wednesday. The return of Mr. H. M. Rushworth with a majority of 489 votes over Mr. Allen Bell gives a decisive finality to the fight for the Bay of Islands seat. at the 101 polling booths, and absentee and postal votes numbering 356 are still to be counted. The decisive points in the polling were Okaipau and Hikurangi. Elsewhere the two candidates ran more or less neck-and-neck. Okaihau, however, gave Mr. Rushworth a lead of 145, and his lead when the Hikurangi return came in was 335, indicating that the Labour vote was an important factor in the contest. There was a large crowd at the Kawakawa post office when the result was announced, and both candidates made short addresses thanking their supporters and congratulating each other on the keenness of the fight. With the 356 absentee and postal votes still to be counted, the returns are as follow: —; H. M. Rushworth (Country) 4,209 Allen Bell (Reform) .. .. 3,720 Majority for Rushworth . 489 At the General Election in November last, following the magisterial recount made after the returning officer had given his casting vote for Mr. Beill, was as follows: H. M. Rushworth (Country) .. 3,820 Allen Beil (Reform) 3,818 R. E. Hornblow (Lib-Lab.) .. 349 Majority for Rushworth .... 2 At the 1925 poll the voting was as follows:—Allen Bell (Reform), 4,211; K. J. Sweeney (Country) ,1,424; A. E. Bissett (Labour), 1,268; T. Wrathall (Nationalist), 311; R. E. Hornblow (Liberal), 273; majority for Bell, 2,787. Mr. Bell first won the seat in 1922, when, standing as an Independent, he defeated the Reform candidate, Mr. V. H. Reed, by 3,585 votes to 3,397 in a straightout contest.