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Evening Star, Issue 3219, 14 June 1873, Page 2

We believe that Mr Pratt, Mayor of Waikouaiti, is likely to offer himself for the Waikouaiti seat in the Assembly. There is some talk of Mr John Davie coming forward. “ The Lancashire Lass” was repeated last evening to a good attendance, and this evening gives place to the “Octoroon,” in which the full strength of the company will appear. The usual fortnightly meeting of the Dunedin Hand of Hope was held in the Oddfellows’ Hall, George street, last evening, and passed off well. The anniversary soiree and concert take place on Friday next. We clip the following from the Inverness Courier of March 13 : —“Mr Thos. Birch, the special agent in this country for encouraging emigration to New Zealand, addressed a crowded meeting in the Schoolhouse at Drumnadrochit, and also at Fort Augustus. Both meetings were well attended, and at the conclusion several applications were made to Mr Birch for special information regarding New Zealand, which was given in an able and lucid manner.” Notwithstanding the plentitude of amusements just now, the diorama continues to attract large audiences, which is not to be wondered at, considering the excellence of the pictures and admirable manner in which Mr Perrier explains the events which they represent. But as there are doubtless some of our readers who have not yet visited the Masonic Hall, we would recommend them not to neglect the opportunity now offered them as the company’s stay hero will only be for a couple of days longer. On Monday, Mr Perrier takes a benefit, which ought to be largely attended. 1 hat Australia maintains its high reputation as one of the healthiest parts of the world is proved by the statistical abstract of the health of the navy for the year ending 30th June, 1872 In that the returns of ratios for invaliding show 58 2 per 1,000 on the East Indies station, 48.9 China, 47.5 West Coast of Africa and the Cape, 37.4 Pacific, 35.2 Mediterranean, 33.8 North America and the West Indies, 30.7 Home, 22.9 south-east coast of America, 22.7 Australia. The death rate was 117 2 per 1,000 on the West Coast of Africa and the Cape station, 14.6 Fast Indies, 12.0 China, 11.2 irregular force, 8.9 Pacific, 8 8 Mediterranean, 8 1 south-east coast of America, 7.4 North America and West Indies, 6.2 Home station, and 5.6 Australia. The particulars of a domestic romance, the principal persons concerned in which were for a long time residents in Melbourne, have been recently communicated to an English paper. About twenty-two years ago a young man arrived in Melbourne, accompanied by a lady. They lived together as man and wife, and several times visited England in company, and returned to the Colony. The gentlemen eventually established himself in Melbourne as a notary, and was much respected. In 1863 he and his companion were married in Richmond Church, and they finally returned to England in 18ti8. The lady then discovered that she had unwittingly committed bigamy, as at tbe time of the Richmond marriage her first husband was alive. It seems that she was a married woman when she accompanied the gentleman who figured as the Colonial bridegroom to Victoria, and that the second marriage took place in consequence of an obituary notice which appeared in the London papers, in which the Christian and surname of tbe deceased were those of the lady’s first husband. When she and number two arrived in England, they ascertained that the individual whose death had been announced was the father of the first husband. The lady subse quently quitted the notary, and is now once more living in single blessedness. Both parties were well known in Melbourne. “Hamlet” was repeated at the Queen’s Theatre, last evening, to a much better house than on the occasion of its first representation. Mr Fairclough evinced a thorough perception of the difficult part he essayed, and from the commencement to the conclusion of the performance, the audience seemed spell-bound, and at the termination of each act he was called before tbe curtain. We have seldom witnessed such a clever impersonation as Mr Fairclough’s Hamlet. He evidently carried out the precept he laid down to the player of suiting ‘ ‘ the action to the word—the word to the action.” Our ideal of Hamlet is founded on the manner in which Mr Barry Sullivan depicted the character; but to our mind Mr Fairclough’s efforts compared favorably with those of that gentleman. In the soliloquy where he apostrophises the skull of Yonck, he outdid himself ; and the same remark applies to all the soliloquies delivered by him. Mdlle Legrand, as Ophelia, acted gracefully; Miss Anstead’s Queen is too well known for its merit to call for especial remark; while the small part of the Player Queen was well filled by Miss Gassy Matthews. Mr South made a capital Polonius; and as Horatio Mr Hooper played carefully and well. Laertes found a tolerably good representative in Mr Glover ; and the part of the First Gravedigger was played in Mr Hydes’s best style. We venture to suggest to the management that a more judicious selection might be made in respect to the gentleman who sustained the character of the Priest; the manner in which he gabbled the lines entrusted to him was painful to listen to. “Hamlet” will again be played to-night, and we look forward with pleasure to its repetition. One of the questions asked at Mr Bastings’s meeting at Lawrence, the other night, was why the reclaimed land for sale in Dunedin was withdrawn from sale, to which the Secretary for the Goldfields replied that he would take his share of the blame in connection with that matter. He was asked by Messrs Kincaid and M'Queen, Mr Sparrow, and others, if they could not get a site on the reclaimed ground for their works, where they would not be a nuisance to the inhabitants in their neighbourhood. He considered it the duty of the Government to foster in every possible manner these foundries and other industries amongst them. He found that forty-eight apprentices, the future artisans of the Colony, were employed in these works. The matter was represented to this way : if the land was put to auction, they could not possibly give the _ price it would fetch, as land speculators in Dunedin would buy it all up. They therefore wished the Government to grant them a privilege. He made the following nosition, viz., that so much of the as they required for their works be sold to them at the highest upset price laud had

ever been offered by the Government, with the condition fch«t buildings of the value o r L 2,000 were erected on the ground, and that in each workshop there should be twelve articled apprentices. The Government agreed to this, and the sale was advertised. There was a great cry against the proceeding, and chief amongst the opponents wan Mr Larnach. It was said to be illegal, and all other kinds of objections were brought against it. The Government were therefore obliged, for the time, to withdraw it from sale. On the morning of the sa!e, all the lawyers of the town were specially retained on the (juestion. He had been making inquiry into the matter, and he believed the Government could sell it in the manner proposed. He found, as a rule, that the opinion of a man who hi s a little common sense is as good as the opinion of a lawyer. A meeting of shareholders in the Albion Coal Company will be held at the Provincial Hotel, on Monday afternoon, at 3 o’clock. We have to acknowledge the receipt from Mr A. R. Livingston of Trollope’s “ Australia and New Zealand,” which we will take an early opportunity of noticing. THE ELECTIONS. The following table shows the result of the elections so far as they have gone ; Waihola - A- Mollison*- - - - 0. Waikari • H. Driver* - - - G. North Harbor E. M'Glashan* - • - G. Riverton - T. Daniel* - - - G. Dunedin • J. Davie - - - - G. „ - G. Turnbull* • G. - W. H. Reynolds* - - G. „ - H. S. Fish* - G. , - G.K Turton - - - G. „ . B. C. Haggitt - - - G. ~ - J. Bathgate* - - - G. Pt. Chalmers H. M'Dermid* - - - G. Oanmru Town J. M'Lean* - - - G. Milton - J. L. Gillies* - - O. Otoramika - A. Kinross • -0. Taieri, - J. Shand* - - - 0. ~ - D. Reid* - - - - O. „ -J. Allan* - - - - O. * Sat in the last Council. ELECTION INTELLIGENCE. The nomination for Naseby took place yesterday. The candidates proposed were: Richard Oliver, Cecil Albert De Lautour, John Phillip Armstrong, and David Hunter Mervyn. The poll will take place on the I6th. The show of hands was Oliver 31, De Lautour 29, Mervyn, 2, Armstrong 3. Mr Gillies was to address the electors at Naseby this evening. Mr Gillies addressed a large meeting at Naseby last evening. A motion of confidence was unanimously carried, and an amendment awarding a vote of hearty thanks found no seconder. He reached Palmerston at noon to-day, and addresses the electors there to-night. A correspondent telegraphs the following from Queenstown: —There was a good attendance at the nomination for this district, which took place to-day. Four candidates were nominated. The show of hands was as follows ;—Wanders, 52; Hallenstein, 39; Innes, 29; Clark, 26. Mr Manders, in a forcible speech, advocated Mr Macandrew’s measures, and expressed bis intention to support the party of progress. Mr Gillies addressed the electors at Alex-

andra and Clyde on Thursday, and received votes of confidence. He addressed a meeting at Naseby, last night, having visited Blacks, Blackstone Hill, etc. en route. He holds meetings at Hyde and Macrae’s today, and at Palmerston in the evening. Mr Tolmie addressed the Portobelio electors on Wednesday evenining in tbe schoolhouse. The meeting was, we believe, the largest ever held in Portobelio for a similar purpose. During the course of Mr Tolmie’s speech (which lasted one hour) he was frequently applauded for the course of action he took during the late crisis. Mr Christie proposed, and MrKellar seconded, “That Mr Tolmie is a fit and proper person to represent the district in the Provincial Council.” Carried unanimously. After the usual vote of thanks to the chairman (Mr John M'Cartney) the meeting dispersed, well pleased with their late representative. Mr G. F. C. Browne is likely to be returned unopposed for Waitahuna. The feeling in the district is so strong in favor of a local man, that Major Richardson and Mr Mouat, who intended to contest the election, have declined to do so. Mr Mouat says “ When I cemented to allow myself to be placed in nomination, I was under the impression that a candidate whose views were opposed to mine, and to those of the constituency was to contest the election. I have since ascertained that the only candidates are gentlemen whose views on Provincial administration almost coincide with my own, and who are local men. There is no principle evoked in the present contest, and I hold the opinion that a constituency is best represented in tho Provincial Council —which is an administrative rather than a legislative body—by a gentleman residing therein.” Mr Browne has addressed several meetings, and has been most favorably received. At Waitahuna he is reported to have said he objected to the Waste Land Board as at present constituted. He would like to see the goldnllds interest represented in it; but for the dissolution, he had intended to bring a motion before the Council on the subject. He explained the causes which led to the dissolution of the Council; and considered the constitutional question raised all humbug. He referred to sales of large block of land by the Reid Government, and the large sams expended in law expenses through its stupidity in interpretation of certain clauses of the Waste Lands Act. Vogel’s Administration was overthrown through Reid’s opposition to selling land in old hundreds at 10s per acre ; yet in 1872 Mr Reid did that for which he condemned Mr Vogel. When Mr Vogel left office, the Province was indebted to the amount of L 20,000 ; two years after, under the Reid Administration, the debt was increased to L 97,050. It was then the ruinous system of selling large blocks of the public estate was resorted to, to reduce the liabilities of the Province. He refused to support any Government who were not prepared to support the interior. During the session of 1872 of the Council, money was placed on the Estimates for roads, &c. ; but from the 31st May—the time at which the Council was prorogued—until Mr Reid’s dismissal from office, a period of six months, not one shilling had been expended on the goldfields ; whereas, from the time the Bastings Government accepted office, up to the meeting of the Council in May last, the sum of L 21,984 had been expended ; he therefore felt that he was justified in giving the Bastings Government his hearty support.

TAIERI ELECTION.

DECLARATION OF TW® POLL. Shortly after eight o’clock last night the Returning Officer for the District, Mr James Fulton, made, at the Drill-shed, Outram, the official declaration of the poll, which was as followsi i * i i a 2 'S £ £ <3 Ph P3 w West Taieri - - 46 12 47 55 17 East Taieri - • 128 87 137 149 45 Otakia - - - 39 30 40 43 14 Maungatua - - 45 3 46 47 3 North Taieri - - 36 4 42 36 1 294 136 312 330 80 Informal votes - 4 1 3 4 0 290 135 309 326 80 Mr Fulton then declared Messrs James Shand, Donald Reid, and James Allan duly elected members of the Provincial Council for the Taieri Electoral District. Some time before the hour appointed for the official declaration, the Returning Officer had made an approximate announcement of the state of the poll, and, a large crowd being assembled, the successful candidates, who were present, bad returned thanks t9 (heir

supporters. We regret that wo have been unable to obtain a report of this part of the proceedings. Mr Shand, on behalf of himself and colleagues, said that, as they had already addressed the electors, they would leave the field to the defeated candidates. Mr Geo. Prain thanked the elpctors who had voted for him, and said that he could not have expected any other result of the election, considering the strong influence that bad been brought to bear against him. Hie electors having made their decision, he accepted the result, and was satisfied, Mr Webb said he appeared before them precisely in the position which ho had expected, and which both friends and opponents had throughout told him was inevitable. He thanked the eighty elector? who had voted for him, aud would inform those present that the support be had obtained bad been entirely spontaneous. He had many friends and acquaintances in the electoral district, but he knew when he entered on the contest that almost almost all of those belonged to the opposite side: not more than half-a-dozen of the eighty who had voted for him knew him personally before he entered the field as a candidate. It was only a week that day since he issued his address to the Taieri electors, and he had only been able to devote about half that interval to a scamper through some parts of a district which included some hundreds of square miles. Wherever he had shown himself he had obtained supporters. He was not so goodnatured as Mr Prain, and must confess that he was entirely dissatisfied with the result of the election. He thought they might congratulate themselves that the election had been contested throughout in the best possible spirit. And when the heat of the present elections was over, he felt no doubt that Mr Reid would do him the justice to recognise that it was in no hot blood, from no personal spite, that he had come there to contend with him, but that he had done so in a spirit which was the outcome of an earnest conviction that he (Mr Reid) was in the wrong. In the same spirit, he now again threw down the gauntlet to Mr Reid, and would tell him that—although he had supported him in his past career in the Assembly, because he thought him one of those who would assist in bringing the unsound finance of this Colony into a safer condition—he would, unless he (Mr Reid) changed bis tactics in Provincial politics, unless he would think less of Donald Keid and his party, and more of the very varied interests which it was the duty of the rulers of this Province to care for, unless he would cease to believe that no one who did not belong to bis party could be an honest politician, follow him to the poll whenever he might have to seek the suffrages of the Taieri electors. He would follow him until—even if it cost him the purchase of one of those beautiful farms he had so often looked on with admiration—even if that were necessary, if it cost him the labor of learning to hold the plough—until he beat him in his own bouse and his own haunts. Mr Reid (having been called for) said that, having already addressed them, he would not have spoken,again had it not been for the remarks which had fallen from Mr Webb. He expressed his regret that sometimes, perhaps from not having been accustomed to public speaking in his early days, his manner, of giving expression to his views might appear to be dogmatic and offensive, but, he assarted them, it was far from his intention at any time that it should be so. It was not a likely thing that at any one’s bidding he should throw overboard his party. Would his opponents do any such thing ? In regard to his views, he was content to believe that they secured him the confidence of his constituents and of a large majority of the people of the Province. As to what Mr Webb had said about the varied interests which existed in the Province, he would yield to none in his desire to see them prosper. He held that all their interests were bound up together, and that it was of equal importance to all of them that the agricultural, mining, pastoral, and manufacturing industry of the Province should be cared for, and should be pros perous. He agreed with Mr Webb that the contest had been carried on in a good spirit. He felt sure that whenever the “ dissatisfied ” representative of the discontented Taieri electors might present himself amongst them he would be courteously received, as he had been on that occasion. With regard to the threat Mr Webb had held out, he could only say that he would always be content to meet no stronger opposition than that of the nominee of the “Central Committee” in Dunedin. Three cheers were called for by Mr Shand for the defeated candidates, and three cheers for the Returning Officer, the call being in each instance very heartily responded to. Mr Fulton, in acknowledging the compliment, reminded the electors that he was Registration Officer also, and that unless electors would furnish him with more definite particulars of their qualifications than were contained in the existing roll, he would have to object to more than two hundred of them, when the time for revising the roll came round again next year. They had been warned for two years, and he hoped the matter would receive their attention. In 1871 there were seven candidates, and the numbers polled weie: —Allan, 264 ; Keid, 263; Shand, 213; Prain, 117; Heworth, 109; Jeffcoat, 63; Gow, 47. OTERAMIKA. The polling for a member for this district took place yesterday, and resulted in the Opposition candidate beating Mr Hamilton, who came forward in the Macandrew interest. Mr Kinross, the successful candidate, represented Southland in the first Couucil after the Union; and at the last general election he was beaten by nineteen votes by Sir F. D. Bell, who represented the district up to the dissolution. The numbers polled yesterday were—r Kinross ••• frt Hamilton v, v- ••• 57 Majority for Kinross 7