THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY, 16, 1877.

Inangahua Times, Volume III, Issue 78, 16 February 1877, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY, 16, 1877.

This polling for the return of a mem** ber to represent tbe Riding of Antonios m the Inangahua County Council, will take place to-morrow. ' There are two candidates' in tbe field for the honor, one being Mr David Duncnn, a resident of Antonios, and Mr Mathew Byrne, of Reefton. It is not our present purpose to go into the merits of tbe two gentlemen. It is apparent, however, that the contest has about it special features, apart, we might almost say, from the candidates themselves. Whatever interest it felt in the result of the poll by tbe reef* dents of Antonios, and we shall not be far out in saying that it is very small indeed, tbere is very good reason for sayingthat the real interest centres in a certain small busy-clique in Reefton. To the instrumentality of this same clique may be ascribed the petition against Mr Gallagher's re* turn, and in like manner to tbe op* position now being shown to the return of Mr Byrne. We have ifc on pretty good autboritv that Mr Duncan had considerable hesitation in coming forward, but after the persistent importunities of the clique referred to, he finally permitted himself to be skull-dragged into the contest. This accomplished, the next step of the clique, or faction, appears to have been to secure the appointment of an accommodating Returning Officer, wbo would see everything with the proper spectacles, and so matters would go on smoothly. Defeated, however, in this latter, as a dernier ressort it waa attempted to limit the voting to the riding, and in tbe utter barreness of such a contention, something very closely allied to actual intimidation of the Returning Officer bas been resorted to. We mention these matters, not that they are likely to influence the election, and we think we may also say the Returning Officer, either one way or the other, but merely as an eyi-

dence of the deep interest taken in the affairs of Antonios by a handful of intriguers who probably never saw the place in their lives, and probably never wili, unless, indeed, it is to work a sluicing claim, or something of that sort. Our own view of the principle which ought to guide the election, we bave already expressed, and have only to here reiterate it, with the views of the .Returning Officer on the subject it would be presumptions to concern ourselves. U ■ 1.1. I ' '