The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 67

South Island Returns

South Island Returns.

Coming to the South Island: With 52 seats to fill, of which 4 were uncontested, 48 electorates had 121 candidates, for whom 60,396 votes were cast: the 48 elected members received 32,652 of these, and the unsuccessful 27,744 votes—a majority of 4,908.

The highest vote cast to elect a candidate in the South Island was at Grey mouth, where Mr. Guinness received 1,177. The lowest was at Invercargill, where Mr. Feldwick was elected, having received but 356 votes out of 1,277 polled.

Thirty-nine rejected men received more votes than Mr. Feldwick, ranging from 991 to 358. In two electoral districts two rejected men in each received a higher number of votes than the member for Invercargill. The average vote cast for the elected men was 680 (41 less than in the North Island), and the average total vote cast in each electoral district was 1,255 (41 less than in North Island). If the North returned members upon the same elective quota as the South, it would be entitled to 41 members in place of 38. In each of the 48 contested districts there was an average minority vote of 578 which failed to be successful in returning any candidates.

Nine South Island men elected received but a minority of the votes cast in their districts. The names and minorities were:—Seymour 413, Dodson 284, Percival 39, O'Callaghan 116, McGregor 104, Ross 214, Hodgkinson 340, Valentine 324 (his majority over the second candidate was one vote), and Feldwick, 565 (elected, as before stated, with but 356 votes). In two Provincial Districts—Nelson and Southland—the whole of the elected men were in a minority respectively of 58 and 1,024 of the votes cast.