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“Beetham's return to House a 'first' for Socred”

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Description: These images were taken by the Evening Standard on Saturday 25th of November 1978 but were not published. They depict Social Credit party supporters celebrating leader Bruce Beetham's successful campaign for the Rangitikei parliamentary seat.

The article “Beetham's return to House a 'first' for Socred” read:

“SOCIAL Credit leader, Bruce Beetham created history on Saturday night when he became the first person in his party to be re-elected to Parliament.

Mr Beetham regained his Rangitikei electorate at the expense of the Education Minister, Mr Les Gandar.

Mr Beetham became Social Credit's be second member of Parliament - Mr Vern Cracknell was the first - when he won the by-election about eight months ago.

More than 300 people, the majority of them league supporters celebrated Mг Beetham's victory in Marton's Arahina Girl Guide Camp.

Much of the celebrations were deveoted [sic] to television interviews and entertainment - and supporters were out to make the most of the nationwide swing towards Social Credit.

Cheer girls, wearing Bump with Beetham T-shirts, and other supporters wearing gold and green hats, and the same coloured ribbons made for a colourful spectacle.

Throughout the night the hall was continually kept in touch with the results centre - the Marton Court house. Results were relayed by radio telephone to Arahina, where a polling places board kept supporters posted on Social Credit's progress.

Even though one small result did not come though until around 10 p.m. the issue had already been put beyond doubt, with a majority on election night of more than 2500 votes.

Afterwards a relieved, but happy Mr Beetham faced a barrage of interviewers – particularly television crews, as well as newspaper reporters some of whom had travelled up from Christchurch to be present.

The interviews were interspersed with congratulatory telephone calls and greetings from people present.

To avoid the noise, Mr Beetham escaped to behind the bar to carry on a Press conference, soon after the results had been finalised in his electorate.

Mr Beetham said he will be pushing for electoral reform ‘along the lines of proportional representation in order to get some electoral justice into the electoral system.

Mr Beetham said: ‘It's an indictment of the present electoral system that a party can get public support and only win one seat in Parliament.

He believes there is going to be substantial public demand for reform of the electoral system. Although he did not know how he would go about it - a petition has already been tried unsuccessfully, Mr Beetham said it is a technical matter and something to be discussed an decided by his league's executive.

Mr Beetham said there was a large amount of public support for his petition on electoral reform two years ago.

‘There is going to be tremendous amount of support for fundamental change in the electoral system as a result of tonight election.

‘We have got this totally unjust situation which has just got to be remedied, otherwise people are simply going to lose respect for and a faith in a parliamentary democracy.

And how does the league stand financially after the election campaign?

Mr Beetham was quick to point out: ‘On the right side of the ledger. We'll come out of this election a lot healthier financially than the Labour Party. There won't be much left in the kitty, but I'm picking that we'll have a small credit balance. We also have a large capacity to earn money. So we'll be back in there in 1981 - bigger and better than ever.

Mr Beetham said he will be changing his approach in Parliament now that he has three years, not just eight months in which to reach his goals. his goals.

‘In my first eight months I had a certain set of specific objectives, which I wanted to achieve, and I set my mind to achieving those.

‘Now, however, with a three-year term I can take a more comprehensive approach and hopefully achieve a wider range of objectives without being on a tight schedule.

Speaking to more than 150 supporters in the Senior Citizens Hall, Feilding, after the result of the poll for the Rangitikei electorate became obvious, the defeated National candidate, Mr Les Gandar, thanked his campaign committee and presented each of them with presents ‘for the enormous amount of work they did on my behalf.’

‘I was hoping, of course, to be the member for Rangitikei and add that to Manawatu and Ruahine, as I had represented you for those electorates in the past.’ Mr Gandar said.

To two Maori women supporters, who sang a lament in Maori, the former Minister of Education gave a suitable reply - in Maori.”