ELECTION DAY.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 73, 10 September 1879, Page 3

ELECTION DAY.

Saturday, the sixth day of September, anno Domini 1879, will long be remembered by the. residents of B'ejlding and Halcoinbe as the day of polling for the flrat general election m which the townships enjoyed the distinction of being appointed polling-places for their, respective districts. At previous elections the voters had fco travel to Palmerston or. Sanson to record their votes. At the : last election comparatively few names appeared Qn, the. roll for. either township, but so rapid has beon their growth that these districts, combined, show, on the roll for the current year a number nearly equalling that of Sandon, Carnarvon, and Boxton combined, or of- Palm,e,rston with its i outlying — from the Q-orge to the, Qroua. are happy to be able to record that . the. day passed off m a yeiry peaceable man- ; ner. Of course there was the usual amount of excitement, and any amount of harmless badinage; From an early hour this townr ship presented an unusually, gay and busy scene. Streams of voters ke.pt Rocking m from all quarters, and by noon there were more people m the streets than on any previous occasion. Among them were, to be notice* not a few Natives, who had come on the business of the day, or to see the fun. The fun, however, was of a very mild type, electioneering squibs and skits being apparently at a discount m our staid community. We only noticed one cartoon. This represented the local candidate, depicted, Janus-like, with two faces— exactly alike and beaming with blandness and : amiabUity— looking different ways. On the left was represented a dandy valuator, sayj ing, " Of course, Mr. Halcombe, we shall have to value these improvements," the reply vouchsafed being '•' Y-e-s ;'' while on the right was seen one of the sons of the toil hard at work improving his section, and ■saying, "•" You are noL going ti> have our improve.hient yalued,'are you, Mr. Halcombe ?" ■ the reply Hub time being, " O-h, n-o !" The cartoon—^which was placed on a cart and driven nqund the tpwn^— gave dire offence to sonje of the, candidate's more pronounced partisans, an^ by them it was smashed and torn to snreds. before it had journeyed very far. A canvas' ribbon, with "Vole for Johnston and'laud: at £L per acre " inscribed en it— Btretohe.d acrpss the street from "Roe's B&nbigk Hotel to a bnilding opposite^prove.d equally obnoxious, and was cut down by a zealqas s^ppprter. of the local candidate, but w;as 'spee.dily; reinstated m its' former position. Mr. BJ|alcombe's large committee worked well, ' straining every nerve to secure that gentleman's return. Mr. Johnston's committee, of- two or three contended right "manfully, 'ajjajnst overwhelming nunlbers. , Towards evening the. anxiety to learn the result of the polling at the. different pplliiigplaces became intense, and as the, djf^erejat returns came m, Mr. Halcombe's supporters became more and more ; elated. At six o'clock, when all the. retui'ns had been re^ ceiyed, with, the exception of Sanson. and Paikariki, their victory/ seemed assured, as "their msn " then had a majority of 161. They were the more confident' of success inasmuch as Mr. Halcombe had teJegraphecL up that he should 'poll more than Mr. Johnston at Paikttkariki, and ; it was considered certain that this, added to his 161 of a majority at that time, would more than counter-, balance any majority Mr. Johnston could obtain at Sanson. The telegraph, however, told a different tale, and a few minutes before eight o'clock it was announced that Mr. Johnston headed the poU by a majority of 51/ -The following ia a synopsis o£ the, vating:— . ' ;.".:..' " ■"

JVom this it will be seen that Feildinngj witli Halcombe,J polied 110 more that Palmerston with its country district, and Sandon, with. Oarnaiyon and Foxton, 64 more, though the number^ for those respective districts are almost equal, being 420, 410, and 450 respectively, as obtained from a cursory examination on the. roll. Otaki polled nearly every elector, and Paikakariki about three^flfths of those on the roll for Wellington, the Hutt, and Porirua, though many of the : electors, for. tho^e. places are absentees. The apattiy ol the Palmers.bon elector* is very remarkable, and,' to outsiders, unaccountable. Out of a pos* sible 410 they scored only 265, leaving 145—--or. three times Mr. Johnston's majority — unpolled, and 'three times the number unpolled fot Feilding and Halcombe. The Sandoii-Foiton district was almost as apa- ! thetic, 131 electors out of. 460 not haying "polled. But this may be accounted for by the fact that they knew full well that Mr. Johnston would obtain a majority more than. Bufficient^to make up/for all minorities at other polling-places, and so did not troubje themselves to record their voted How far the railway question has influences the election may be gleaned from the re.turns. It will be. seen that of the 329 vote.3 polled m the SandoniFoxton district, the candidate whose views were not antagonistic to either, of their pet schemes secursd no less than 312, while Mr. Halcombe. arid Mr. Snelson, whose interests; lay m another direction, had to rest contented- \vith infihitesimally small crumbs, the former scoring 9 and the latter 8," or 17 as against 312. These few remarks wi£ doubtless afford

matter for serious reflection m yiew of the speedy readjustment ©f the representation, when Manawatu ia bound to haye one additional representatiyve, when thekquestion of the unity or division of the County must of ngcessity crop up. Now that the election day is past aod gone, it is sincerely to be hoped that any little acerbity which may have been imported into the contest will belaid aside, and the " hatchet " effectually buried.

Hal- Snel- JohnStation, combe. son. ston. Tl. Eeilding ... 223 r ... 3 ... 42... 268 Halcombe ... 101 . ... 1 ... . 9 -v Xl 7 -Balmerston ... 49 . ... 187 ... 29 ... 265 Foxfcoa ... 3 .... 5 ... 144 ... 152 Ofcaki ... ... 44 ... 4 ... 39 ... 82 Paikakariki... 16 .... 4 .. 62 ... 82 Sandon ..; 6. ..; 3 ... 168- ... 177 442 207 493 1142