The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JULY 21, 1884.

Kumara Times, Issue 2522, 21 July 1884, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. MONDAY, JULY 21, 1884.

Tomorrow is the day for the general elections throughout the colony. There are two candidates for the representation of the Kumara district. We have purposely abstained from exhibiting a partiality for one candidate more than the other, because we have none, and because we have regarded the present contest to be of a personal character. Our columns have been freely open to the public to comment on the merits and demerits of both candidates; and we have denied to neither party ,iuit right; if one side may seem to have taken more advantage of this liberty,.that is the fault of the other side, not ours. The candidates are both good sound practical men, and above the average. Mr Blake has certainly had the advantage in canvassing over hia opponent by being able to criticise the five years' representation of Mr Seddon. We would still have left each to win or lose upon his merits, and gladly seen the electors decide without attempting to bias their choice. An article, however, appeared in the Hokitika Guardian on Friday last that would Imve attracted little attention in itself but for the determination to force it on to the electors of this district by some hundreds of copies being sent round by boys to leave at every house, and to give to all they met. The composition, as most election articles usually are, is a rabid denunciation of one candidate, and a fulsome laudation of the other. It is a disgraceful attempt to open old sores, air bygone scandals, and drag in perßOual matters that one

would have thought had been long dead and buried, and which cannot be touched upon without wounding the feelings of many private and innocent persons, and which, moreover, have nothing to do with the matter at issue. If the perpetrator or instigator of the scandalous attempt finds he has turned popular feeling into a channel of indignation against the unmanly act, then we should say that Mr Blake will have to thank the ill-judged efforts of his friends for his defeat.

The poll for the election of one person to represent the district of Kumara in the ninth session of the New Zealand Parliament takes place to-morrow between the hours of 9 a.in. and 6 p.m. The candidates are —Richard John Seddon and Edwin Blake. The Kumara Court House is the principal polling-place, and there will be polling-booths at Dillman's Town, Callaghan's, Stafford, Goldsborough, and the Taipo Crossing, as well as at a number of other places in the district. For the Greymouth election, for which Messrs A. R. Gninness and Joseph Petrie are candidates, polling-booths will be open to-morrow at the Court House, Greenstone, and at Messrs Keech and Malloy's Store, Westbrook, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mr Blake addresses the electors at the Theatre Royal this evening, at 8 o'clock. - Mr Seddon addresses the electors at the Empire Hotel, Dillman's, this evening, at 8 o'clock. The annual meeting of the Hospital Committee, which was advertised to take place this evening, is postponed till further notice. A painfully fatal accident occurred on Saturday to a miner, named William Dove, employed in the Ross United Goldmining Company's claim. It appears (the West Coast Times states) he was changing the -buckets in the pumping gear, and while in a stooping position, fell back towards the blind shaft. He was never more seen, having fallen down the shaft, a distance of 130 feet. There was 30 feet of water at the bottom of the shaft, and it took from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to clear the shaft of water and reach the body. The deceased was highly respected in the Ross district, where much sympathy is expressed for his young widow. He is brother to Mr E. Dove, Four-mile Creek, Arahura.

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