THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1371, 20 December 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1872.

At the close of elections, when the hurlyburly has ceased, and the electors ; are bought or "Bold," there is: always a number of clever men who, like the friends of Columbus, become wise after the event, and are capable of demonstrating how they knew all along how if would end, or how it shouldn't have ended as it did, or how, having ended as it did, the whole thing could and should be undone. Probably there never was. an election yet, since Paradise was lost, that either man or devil djd not present himself to show how, or to try how, it could : be upset. This community having . recently had three elections contiguous in poiut of time and place, is suffering niach at the present moment from this manly or devilish disposition. There are three elections questioned— some forcibly in language, and some formally in writ, and about all there is "much ado about nothing." In connection with some there is creditable interest taken in the necessity for amending the loose state of the law ; in connection with another there is a questionably creditable interest taken by people who, having made "mud-pies" on what they conceive to be "the quiet," would now wish to publicly destroy the fabric which took the place of their "mud-pie," as if they did co with clean hands. ! One of the elections the legality of which is questioned, less in the interests of defeated candidates, than in the necessity which exists for amending the law, is the County Council, election for Greymouth, arid possibly it is not an exception! The question raised is whether those who are hot natural-born or naturalised 'subjects of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, enjoy . the privilege of voting under a Westland miner's right. At Greymouth, it is said, the votes of some who could not answer that question in the affirmative were not permitted to exercise the miner's franchise. In other districts it is understood that they were permitted. The . same discrepancy has arisen on the occasion -.of previous elections, and in other parts of the country than Westland— in one instance, of which we knowj the Chief Returning Officer declining bucli votes and his sub-officers accepting them. The matter was supposed to be settled at a Hokitika election some years ago by the receipt of an opinion from the Attorney-General Btating that such voteß were admissible, and great

stress is laid by casual readers of the law, upon the clause in the Westland Act which states that "every man," of certain age, with a miner's right of certain age, and with residence of certain age, can vote. With all respect for the opinion of the Attorney- General, it seems to be very questionable if he is at all correct, and the necessity seems to be that either a fresh case should be submitted to him, or that the matter should by some means be remitted to the Supreme Court. We understand that, according to the Constitution Act, " aliens," whatever may be their position, are inadmissible on the electoral roll, and as '"aliens" they not unfrequently claim .exemption from acting as jurymen or fulfilling other duties of citizenship. It appears extraordinary, to say the least, that persons who can equally claim those exemptions, and who may possess no interest, or a mere nominal interest, in the common-wealth, should have the right of exercising the franchise But whether they should have tho right 0^ not, something must be meant by the circumstance of it 3 being the duty of each Returning Officer to put to each voter this question : — V Are you a natural-born or naturalised subject of Queen Victoria?" Up to this point we detect a meaning consonant with the Constitution Act; but here unfortunately the coherency of the Act, or common capacity to understand it, ceases. A clause subsequent to that which supplies, this question imposes certain penalties upon those who shall "refuse and omit distinctly to answer it," and it does the same with regard to other questions as to age and residence, but the clause omits to say, with regard to. naturalisation, what it. says with regard to age and residence, that the question shall be answered "absolutely in the affirmative." The matter seems to end there. If a man , "refuses or omits to distinctly" answer the question put to him, ;he is disqualifiedj but if he distinctly says that he is not a subject of her Majesty, there is nothing said in . thelaw as to what is to be done with him. although the presumption would be that the Returning Officer must r fall back upon the Constitution Act. Obviously the Act I affecting theso elections requires either explanation or amendment. The proceedings of Returning Officers, each acting contrary to his neighbor's conception of the law, are simply making 'confusion worse confounded." Of course those who may be "aliens" can always amend the little difficulty by becoming naturalised, and it is an old advice of Judge Richmond worthy o£ acceptation, that those who enjoy the protection of the laws of a country should remember that their position has duties as well as rights. The Paroa election, which has proved such a perfect "comedy of errors," has done so leas through the law's looseness than through man's tenacity, yet the law has proved to be not an unproductive source of the prevailing discord and disputation. In the Act there is an extraordinary absence of distinctness as to the mode of procedure in such circumstances as have in this case arisen, or, in fact, in cases of the simplest character, so far as the Returning Officer is concerned. It is the Returning Officer's affair, however, to perform what is equal to the puzzle of " taking the breeks off a Highlandman " — to discover what does not present itself to the vision of ordinary men ; and, without going so far as Philadelphia, he has, as we are told, asked for the best available legal advice, and, whether he has acted upon, it or not, has acted as he thinks he is forced to do, and under a responsibility which is solely his own. Whether Mr Hamilton or Mr Cooper is the member, it is clear enough that Mr Dungan is not the member for the district, and it is with regret we see that, at Marsden, as at Paroa, ..Mr Dungan, instead of realising and enabling others to realise that his position is due to an-inno-cent error of his own, introduced a contemptible quibble as to a ; difference between the date 3of the paying for a miner's right and of that miner's right being issued— a circumstance which he knows well enough had nothing whateverto do with his incapacity for nomination. Should it have anything to do with others of bis privileges as a miner or a citizen, or even should it not do so directly, he has a right to see that the matter is rectified, both in his own and the public interest ; but Ihere is enough to settle in connection with this small election, without any smoke being raised | and if Mr Dungan persists in pretending that, up to the date of his' nomination he was the victim of any . "great abuse," _ he must be plainly told that he is raising what smells very much of smoke/ Quibble number two in connection with this election i 3 one which, not with his consent we are sure, has been raised upon behalf of Mr Hamilton — namely, that he had not signed his contract with the County Government. The Act is perfectly plain upon that point. It disqualifies those who "shall be concerned, or participate in anywise in any isontract," except under certain conditions inapplicable to this case, and the wisdom 'of ''such disqualification is obvious. Father as an. employer of labor during an election, or as being interested in a contract during session, a contractor might I most materially favor himself, to the disadvantage of persons or the public, and anyone who estimates the object of the clause will be slow, we . should think, to set up th&L quibble that, at a particular moment, & contract in process of fulfills ent had riot been signed . With regard to Mr Cooper, his position has become more anomalous as time advanced. ' His fault or misfortune seems to have been, that, while apparently acute, he has been in reality simple : he has been tenacious, yet unstable. It seems to be that he was the only qualified candidate present at the nomination, and, if he believed himself to be elected, either with or without the Returning Officer's intimation to that effect, he might have tried the ' question of claiming the seat when the Council met. He took the courteous, but, as he might have anticipated, questionable course of meeting the constituency. He practically- invited pressure to be brought against him, .. and is now pointedly asked to lay no claim to represent a constituency whose confidence he had not obtained. . The case is not the first in the Colony in which something similar happened,, our present Colonial Treasurer having at his first election been returned without the knowledge or acquiescence of more ;; than his mover and seconder, and had he complied with the subsequent outcry, he probably would not now have been Colonial Treasurer. Haying placed himself in the hands of the Philistines, it is. now ior Mr Cooper to consider what promises he made under

the pressure which he invited. If Mr Hamilton has, as it is said he has, done what some think he cannot do — resign what he does not possess — and if Mr Cooper also resigns his claim to the seat, there will eventuate what would be most satisfactory to the constituency — a fresh election. Should that even be- done today, it will be impossible for a member for Paroa to take his seat at the opening of the Council, the requirement being that, on the occurrence of any extraordinary vacancy, such time shall elapse as would, in this case, make it only possible for a new member to take his place a day or two after the regular date of meeting. -Whether even this can- be- done rests with Mr Cooper and his conscience, or his conception of the position in which he legally stands. Should therebe a fresh election the chances are that, after a vote of censure upon Mr Peter Dungan for causing all this bother, the constituency will pass a vote of confidence in him by again returning him ; but, with the political atmosphere of Paroa agitated as it now is, even that may not be a positive certainty. ;■ : " No sooner had the Paroa election resulted in the most complete'muddle that could well have been imagined, than the Town Councillors of ' Greymouth are charged w,ithjhaving been yfc ridiculous in concurring in an illegalityMn" the choice of their annual chief, on Wednesday last. We need not dwell on the general satisfaction felt amongst the ratepayers ou it being known that MrMasters had been returned, nor the relief that was felt at haying escaped a civic misfortune after being for days in such dreadful peril of its infliction. But it seems that those ■ who had had things so thoroughly cut and I dried, and who looked on the installation <of their candidate as a mere matter of form, are so mortified . at. the ggj^boiling over, if we may be permitted :: # use a sporting phrase in connection with a mayoral contest, that they, have searched the Act and have dug out a clause, under which they contend that the whole election was vitiated and illegal, in consequence of the Mayor giving a casting vote, lin lieu of the decision being by lot. We \ may remark en passant that it was somewhat odd that the present objectors, some of whom are old members of the Council, and their highly experienced Town Clerk, should only have discovered the crime several hours after it had been committed. All Councillors are presumedly acquainted with the Act that, they undertake to administer, and it would not be a vast stretch of imagination to suppose that, on a matter of such civic importance as the election of their annual ruler, they would have read themselves up on the formal ceremonies and rites ' that are practised, within the meaning of the. Act;on such occasions. The Town Clerk, it is said, claims to have all the clauses of the measure at his figurative fingers' ends. How was it that he calmly, coincided in what now he deems an illegality ? How Was it that the eight councillors did the same, and how is it that a large portion of them write themselves down asses, by alleging that, they were ignorant of what they should have been specially, well informed on? The retiring Mayor, as Chairman, on the numbers being equal, gave a casting vote, pretty speeches were made and subsequently repeated under "favorable circumstances," and all parted on the best terms. Mr Woolcock specially explained, after defeat, and in the most straightforward mariner, that had he known Mr Masters would have stood for the chair, he (Mr Woolcock) would not have opposed him, and that he had only done so in accordance with special pledges made to his friends that he would offer himself. Mr Moore, his proposer, expressed himself in similar terms, but having exhumed a clause that, at the first blush ',■ would appear to imperil the election, retracts, and efforts are being made to have it over again. There are others behind 'the scenes, pulling the strings to the same tune, but the effect of their exertions will be harmless. Proceeding to the legal aspect, we will refer to the portions of the Act in question on which those disaffected to the. late result rely. The day and hour for all. Borough Councils to hold their annual meeting are fixed by the 135 th clause for the third Wednesday in the month of December in each year, and the provision was duly complied with in this case. The 13Cth clause provides that in all meetings annual or general, the decision shall be by majority, at which all councillors present shall vote. The part of the clause on which objectors rely rung as follows : — "Provided always that if at any such meeting there be an equality of votes in the election of a Mayor or Chairman, it shall be decided by lot, which of the Councillors, having equal votes, shall be Mayor or Chairman."" Now the question arises what is the meaning of the words "by lot." . Some of those who desire to upset the election allege that it means a shake, in. the hat, Yankee grab, pitch and toes, or other popular methods of deciding disputes or differences, but it is hardly likely that the Legislature meant any such proceeding, and the Councillors on the occasion showed their good sense in abiding as they, do facto, did, by assuming the Chairman to be the method of "lot" they chose to appeal to< As we have already remarked, the matter was then supposed to be at an end, the difficulty having been decided in a dignified way, but the malcontents were scotched, not killed, and now endeavor to stultify their own act, anc> eat their own words. There is no technical or legal definition of the words " by lot," and as the Act-is silent on the subject, the Councillors were fully entitled to interpret them in the manner they did, or in any other way, Yankee grab even, had it been proposed 5 it' is simply ridiculous, to suppose that hours afterwards they can repudiate their deliberate action. In any dilemma of the j kind precedent is frequently of vast service, and as it happens, in the present case one analogous. in every feature and particular is to hand; It will be remembered that on the occasion of Mr Joseph - Kilgour being elected to the office of Mayor of Greymouth, Mr, Whall, .the present Town Clerk, hold the same office, and was, as on Wednesday, supposed to bo f{ guide, philosopher, and friend," to newly-fledged. Councillors; On the,; votes being taken there were three on each side, and the ; Chairman gave his vote in favor i of Mr Kilgbury.'who thereupon' took his seat and discharged the duties of ■tlie pesition : for the allotted termi ;:■ It was theform of "lot" thenandreoentlyadppted, and quibble how they may, the decision cannot be reversed nor the seat endangered. Even were a majority of the Council to pass a resolution to the effect that a fresh election should takV place, it

would be merely worth the paper it;w,aswritten on, . for all the forms '}(& the. Act haVe been virtually complied" with,land: no infringement of -its provisions" has; taken place. Again, there is another very important fact to be borne in mind. On the annual meeting of Wednesday last adjourning, Hie adjounvmnt was for one year. If, therefore, there was anything in the objection raised, it would have the effect of creating a municipal interregnum for that period, and that too at a time when, above, all others, the Borough Council can not only be really of signal service, but is an absolute necessity, for the town's well being. The Councillors have either laid themselves down for a year's repose, or their whole proceedings were valid and proper, and Mr Masters is Mayor of Greymouth in accordance with them. Fortunately there is no. difficulty, and whilst the Mayor's jnest i 3 fully and most satisfactorily occiipied/the mare's nest alleged to have been discovered proves a very veritable one indeed.'

The election of a member of the Paroa Road Board in the room of Mr Henry Syinons, who resigned his seat about a .fortnight ago, took place yesterday, at the Road Board office. The only candidate nominated was Mr Maurice O'Connor, who was then declared duly elected. A vote of thanks to the Returning Officer ; terminated the proceedings, which resulted in the return of . a member who' >had already proved himself highly useful in his connection with the Greymouth and Paroa road. : : • . The lad Firth, attending the Cobden school, who ! successfully competed for . a Provincial scholarship, had higher marks than any other twenty competitors. His numbers were 263 ; those of the. other successful competitor, Thomson, of Richmond, being 315. M'Cann and Batty, of Cobden school, who were .also competitors, got 107 and 115 marks respectively, and Heslin, of Brunnerton, 179, • ■ ; On Monday evening, the Wesleyans of Reefton held, a tea-meeting in honor of the completion of their chapel. The Rev. Mr Taylor, from Greymouth: was present. The chapel was tastefully decorated both inside and .but with fern and evergreens. The tables, .which were given by different ladies, were very nicely arranged "and loaded with good things; After the tables were cleared away and the more intellectual portion lof the evening's entertainment began, Mr Eolleston was voted to the chair, and after the meeting had been opened by singing and prayer, he made a few remarks appropriate to the occasion, ' and thanked the people of the district for the support that had been : accorded to them, remarking that many who were not Wesleyans Had lent them a helping hand, and notably was this the case amongst the men who, during 'the winter months* had been employed on the roads, i The Secretary, Mr Robert M 'Lean j .then, produced the report and balance-sheet, which showed that the expenditure.and, liabilities amounted- to L 139 19s 6d, whilst the receipts amounted to L 74 17s 4d only. There was thus a debt; of L 65 2s 2d. On arriving at the item set down as expended in business licenses, the secretary animadverted in strong language: against the policy of the Provincial Government that rendered such expenditure necessary. The Rev.. Mr Pendrey addressed the meeting ; on the subject of "Perseverance under difficulties, " . and the Rev. Mr . Taylor complimented.them on their energy and on the success that had attended their attempt to'introduce the services of- their church into a , new district. The meeting, which lasted ' until nearly 10 p.m., was then closed by the I Rev. Mr Taylor pronouncing the benediction. : The doxology and several well-known hymns | were sung with great heartiness during the evening. ■ . „ . Ouppeaders may remember a paragraph which appeared- in several papers reflecting on Mr Shaw, late of Hokitika,;>The;i?q.^ Neius has received from one ; of Mr Shaw's friends a version of the affair, which it believes to: be correct. Mr S. made, while ' in San ! Francisco, an agreement 'with a Mr C. to start a newspaper in a country town, in partnership — MrS. to giye/his labor; arid Mr C. a fixed weekly sum in money, Mr S. accordingly started the :paper, and; after,, two months, finding no money forthcoming from his partner, gave him notice that, he would &is* continue the publication within a certain time, unless the promised "contributions were (forthcoming. Accordingly^ -he 'waited ithe stipulated time, arid not getting any reply, agreed with the mortgagee and possessor of. the plant for its • use^ and "' brought jouV another'paper; ; Onthis'Mr C. appeared, and brought aft action against Mr S.y which was dismissed, without even counsel for the defence being heard, so frivolous did the complaint appear. ''■■'■■''• -' ' ; ' A tender from Langland's Foundry, Melbourne,.for the erection of the Nelson gasworks, for L 7104, has 'been accepted; ' The second tender was from Mr Kennedy Smith, and was about LIOOO higher. The whole of the plant is to be delivered on Nelson ..wh arf within three months from the signing of the contract. ■' ■ - • ' Ij-.:^;^j j . A writ for the newly-constituted electoral district of Inangahua, to return a member to the Provincial Council;' has ' just°been! issued by. his Honor the .Superintendent. The writ, says the Examiner, ; had beeri* kept" back awaiting the appointment by the General Government of a Returning Officer, who has only been just gazetted...' .:.;.: : >•:•> A sale of land in the Inangahua district is advertised to 'take- place- -on*- the 28th of January. ....", ; '-'' : ' ; Government' offices in' We9tiland are to be closed on Tuesday, Wednesday, arid ; Thursday, December 24th, 2othj- and 26th <;. and on thesame days in the following week. The following is tke definition of "an amateur batsman," adopted at" a" national convention of delegates from 31 clubs, held in New York on the 28th'- : arid 29th August last, for the purpose of . deciding the question : — "We define an amateur oarsman to be one who does not enter in an .open competition, or for either a stake, public" 'or admission nioney, or entrance fees, or compete with or. against a professional/ for ; any prize, or who has never taught, pursued! "or assisted in the pursuit of athletic, exercise aa a means of livelihood, : or has not been "employed in or about; boats bir in manual labor on the water." , .' ' - '. r .'''"'[[ '-„ ■' The San Francisco ;mail for the Southern Provinces is to be despatched to-day from Manukau by the steamer Wellington, which will- probably arrive ( at Nelson, in .time for, the West Coast mails be forwarded by the Alhambro, ... . ■•-, . - „ ' The 'children attending" St. ! Patrick's school are to bo examined to-day, 1 and ; iio. receive their, rewards of merit, prior to dis'-' missal, for the holidays. vlr" th£ '.evening, there is to be a magic'lantern exhibitiph for their amusement, , n ' ,' "It is now gazetted that on and after the' lst' January, the newspaper postage within the Colony will be reduced to one half -penny. • ' Mr Lightfoot has returned-irom- the Hope to Nelson- with, a hopeless report as to the. discovery of coal there. It proves tc> y be ■shale,;. „■ : . ', ■'■/ ; ' .■. !•k■ .i V Of'H - , ' .. ' Dr Carr, the mesmerist, is now, m ; NeV son. ;;..;. -„,: c.. ■■:...:. ; ;,i;^ i ' _ J The lioss News understands that it is the indention of: the./directors ..of the Morning Star Company to make an effort to dispose, of the remainder. r pf the scrip, and start the. engines. The condenser was landed at Ro*. kitika, from the ; Prosperity, ;.; pn Monday lastV