THE SECOND BALLOTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3056, 28 November 1908, Page 4

THE SECOND BALLOTS.

The Ministerial expectatiDns regarding the second ballots have assuredly not been realised. It was estimated by a prominent member of the Government that the result of the ■twenty-two second ballots which were held on Tuesday would be to give the Opposition six additional seats. The inference was that sixteen seats would be secured by the Government. As a matter of fact, the result has been, so far as we are able this morning to judge, to give the Government twelve seats, the Opposition nine, and the Labour party one member—the first direct representative which the Independent Labour party ha 3 secured in Parliament. But the returns are really less favourable to the Government than this bold statement of the figures suggests, for the Ministerial nominee for the Chalmers seat, who received the benefit of the assistance that the Minister of Labour could give him by a speech in his favour on the eve of the polling day, was defeated by an "Independent Liberal." Ar.d it will be altogether surprising if Mr Clark's sense of independence is somewht deepened and sharpened through the active interference of a Cabinet Minister on behalf of his opponent—"Otago Daily Times."