RANGITIKEI BY-ELECTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9601, 22 September 1909, Page 7

RANGITIKEI BY-ELEC-TION.

OFFICIAL FIGURES FOR FIRST BALLOT. TWO CANDIDATES FORFEIT THEIR DEPOSITS. As a result of the recount there is a slight alteration in regard to the number of votes recorded in favour of each of the candidates excepting Mr Hornblow. The following are the official figures, together with the rough totals given out on election night: Official Rough figures. Totals. Hockly 1557 1562 Smith 1058 1059 Meldrum 895 904 Georgetti 341 343 Hornblow 333 333 Out of a totsl of 4,140 votes recorded no fewer* than 56 were informal Owing to their failure to seeinv the requisite number of votes, Messrs , Georgetti and Hornblow forfeit their \ deposits. MK SMITH'S POLITICAL OPINIONS. One of the burning questions in 'connection with the election relates to Mr Smith's views before and since the general election. Mr Hockly declared at Mangawelca on Friday evening that before the yenera! election Mr Smith made distinct declarations to prominei.t members )f the Opposition party in the electorate that his sjmnathies were with them, that he was only standing as an independent, because in that guise he conld catch the large Labour vote up the line, and that once he took his seal in Parliament his support would be given to the Opposition. Mr Hockly said had his reason for referring to the matter was that Mr Smith had claimed that the Opposition party were misrepresenting him, that he was obtaining a good deal of support in cor.se-

quence, arid that he had K one so far j as to challenge him to 'sustain the charge He asked the electors whether they could believe that he would have stood down i;: Mr Smith's favour at the general election, if there had been any reason to thii.k tint Mr Smith's leanings, excepting in regaid to the question of land tenure, were altogether towards tha Government. It ' was true that Mr Smith had stated at Taiiiape in November that his sympathies werewith the Government, but this must have been in furtherance of his ; effort to secure the Labour vote. During the course of Iris address at the same town nn Saturday evening Mr Smith declared that Mr Hockly's attempt to discredit him would prove futile in the eyes o± the electors. Reports of his speeches prior to the general election would show that he had declared himself a supporter of the present Government, excepting with regard to their lend policy. In the present election the Government had accorded him (heir approbation as a recognised Government candidate, and he re/aine/l, with their corsenr, the right to support the freehold under all circumstances. By taking up this poai ■ tion the Government had removed the barrier which prevented him from according them his support on the ldtt occasion. The result of the fiist ballot, which gave him premier position among the Government can- : didatea, assured him that he had retained the confidence of the electors, and there was no occasion to go any further into a wearisome controversy. Whep question time came uund, Dr Turnbuli asked Mr Smith if he htiU iorgoiten that on tt.e eve of the general election he had obtained support at Mangaweka and elsewheie in the way that Mr Hockly hed slated. Not satisfied with the answers he received, the questioner put his query three times, and. in the end, Mr Smith absolutely denied the charge of inconsistency. Further developments in this regard are expected. Everwyhere one goes one finds large numbers of electors who would have voted for Mr Meldrum, Mr Georgetti, or Mr Hornblow, had any of them got into the second ballot, but who now infinitely prefer Mr Hockly to Mr Smith, states a contemporary. One of these Mr J. Johnson, who acted as chairman at I Mangaweka for the late Mr Remingf ton, and subsequently for Mr Meldi rum. Mr Johnson, it should be explained, has been one of the most pronounced supporters of the Ministerial party in Kangitikei, for the past eighteen years. He ttates that his party was badJy in need of a can-, didate in whom it could place every confidence—one who could assist the Government to enact legislation worthy of the country and its people. Feeling that the candidate was not now in the field, he preferred to vote for the Opposition candidate. In Mr Hockly, whom he had known for'the last twenty years, the electors had a thoroughly upright, honest man, a '■ practical farmer, a resident having the true interests of his district and country at heart He had no con fidence in Mr Smith, whom he had known just as long, as a representa I tive of the party which he had assisted so consistently.