Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 165, 11 March 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, MARCH 11, 1864.

The exulting cry of wild delight with which the Herald proclaims the defeat of Mr. Bousfield at the Country District election is characteristic. That that defeat is by any means an index of the feelings and opinions of the really independent voters will not he allowed for one moment by those who are not biassed by the most rancourous personal feeling. The yell of a ferocious savage gloating over the reeking scalp of his fallen foe is not more musical than the screams of bitter hatred with which the Herald greets its opponents. Dead cats and rotten eggs are the usual favors bestowed upon men who come forward in public matters. Mr. Bousfield took the late election very quietly, and while Government “ hacks” rode up and down for dear life to bring up this vote and take up that to support their man, using every sort of threat, persuasion, and inducement to strengthen the weak and convince the wavering, Mr. Bousfield allowed the electors to go their own way, feeling sure that those who oJ with him would vote for him, and those who did not or who had no opinions at all would vote against him. We fancy that if Mr. Richardson’s supporters were asked why they put Captain Carter and Mr. Bousfield out of the Council they would be able to assign no better reason for doing so than that the first gentleman had been too long in, while the last had not been long enough. Such is the astonishing intelligence of this generation. The “ ignominious defeat” is not at all plain. Out of a list of G 4 voters only 40 took part in the contest. It is clear, then, that a large margin was left for Mr. B. to go in and win if he chose.

One word to the electors in reference to the absence in a great many of them of any fixed_ political principles, and we have done. It is quite clear that if the electors, either of town or country, don’t manage matters better as regards their choice of a representative, and be at least consistent therein, no man of character will ever come forward to gain that unenviable distinction, and our Provincial politics, which are not the less important because small, will degenerate into a misei’able scramble amongst a mob of ignorant ruffians'