THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1868.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 406, 20 August 1868, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1868.

The official nomination of candidates for Municipal Council honors has been made, and the list of names is now before the public. Nine Councillors are wanted, and twenty-two candidates have offered their services. In one respect, the length of the list is matter for congratulation, as evidencing the amount of interest which is being taken by the citizens in the election ; but in another it is to be regretted, because several of the gentlemeu who have been brought forward, are, to say the least of it, unfitted to sit at the Council board. It is not our intention too closely to criticise the qualifications of the various candidates, because we believe they are well known to every elector in town who can look at the list free from party or local jealousy. We desire rather to endeavor, to remove that jealousy which now exists between two distinct sections of the community — a feeling which has actuated the nomination of several of the candidates, and which, if not guarded against, may secure their election — and to ask the citizens to look at the present contest from a broader point of view than it has hitherto been the habit to adopt in this city. We are now entering upon an election contest, the result of which will either secure the. future good government of the town, or by introducing into the Council elements of discord, land us in a worse position than we now occupy, It is to avoid this latter alternative that we would seriously call upon the electors to look at the present contest intelligently, and not to he led away by narrow, petty, or local jealousies. Men are. not wanting who are even npw endeavoring to make this election turn upon one of the most paltry of possible considerations, who would place in the Council gentlemen pledged to carry out a certain piece of local work, leaving entirely out of sight the grand principle upon which these elections ought tp. be conducted. Councillors ought to be chosen for their in tegrity, their intelligence, their ability to represent all interests fairly and equitably in the Council, and to do their duty to

their constituents as honest upright men. They onglit not to be cliosen because they would allow tlip tramway to run to the wharf or stop it at Boundary street, because they would vote for the making of pne street before another, or e^cting any individual as Town CJork ; and yet we believe we are right in saying that such miserable tests as thgse have been applied to several of the candidates. This is not a tramway question we are settling ; it is the election of nine Councillors, upon whose integrity and uprightness of purpose the future welfare p,f the town greatly depends— who will prove to be either a credit or a disgrace to Greymouth • and we earnestly hope that all sections of the community will unite in scouting the introduction of those littlenesses of mind which are sought to b,e insinuated intp this contest. Plenty of able, intelligent mgn have offered their services, to the electors, and we cannot but think that if they are not acegpted, we will be placing in the hands of men unabje to gxercise it, a power over the welfare and happiness of the citizens which they ought not to be entrusted with. Since the nomination, private mgetings, have been held by a number of candidates (about fourteen, we believe), in order, if possible, to arrangg who should retire from the contest, so as to assist in securing a fair and equitable representation of both ends of the toyvn in the Council. We are informed that the result pf these consultations has been the retirement of four of the candidates, and that the notices to that effect were yesterday lodged with the Returning Officer, as rgquired by the Act. The gentleme.n who have retired are Messrs. Simmons, Joyce, Webber, and Sheedy. From the remaining candidates, a selgctjpn of nine has b.een made — four from each township, and pne as a sort of middle-man ; and fpr the return of these gentlemen, every effort will be made. As there are now five candidates in the field from the. Government Township, it is only fair that four of them should be returned, as they no doubt will be. The real contest will now l|e in the Upper Township, in which there are thirteen candidates, and we think some arrangement similar to that mentioned above might be attempted, in order to secure the return of men who will reprgsent thg town in a creditable manner.