CITY ELECTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 32, 6 February 1879, Page 2

CITY ELECTION.

Two crowded meetings were held last night by the rival candidates. At the Provincial Hall the chair was taken by the Mayor, and Mr Adams made an able and eloquent speech which lasted two hours. At its close Mr John Graham spoke in high terms of the candidate, for whom he proposed three cheers, which were given with a will. A similar compliment was paid to the chairman, and the meeting dispersed^somewhat hurriedly, and apparently to the disappointment of one or two who were prepared to catechise Mr Adams. For the same reason Mr Haddow was prevented from giving the writer of a letter signed " Anti-Bunkum " his promised " dressing down." At the Theatre Royal the chair was taken by Mr Fell, and at the close of Mr Pitt's speech a vote of confidence in him was proposed by Mr W. Harley, and seconded by Mr James Graham and carried unanimously. To-day cabs have been running to and fro conveying voters to the polling places, the vehicles as well as the walls, being placarded with posters offering advice to the electors as to the direction in which they should give their votes. Mr Adams has contented himself with one only of these bearing the words "Adams ! Railway. National Education." Mr Pitt's are more numerous, one of them being a copy of the ballot paper in bold type with a thick black line through the words, " Adams, W. Acton Blakeway," " Pitt, Albert " being left untouched. This is accompanied by the instruction to the electors " Serve the ballot paper thus." Another poster recommends them to " Read the declarations and vote for Pitt." We were in hopes that the " working man" was to enjoy a holiday during the whole of this election, as he had been left in peace until yesterday, but last night he was trotted out, and placards to-day inform him that he has a true friend in Pitt. At intervals during ;the day, declarations (fanciful, not statutory) of the poll were posted at the respective Committee rooms, but as they differed as widely as did the Condell v. Adams and Adams v. Oondell asseverations, they were not generally regarded as reliable. Between twelve and one o'clock there was a rush to the polling places, especially from the Port, wheuce came, among other vehicles, a drag drawn by four greys, filled with passengers, and bearing the Adams' placard. The following is the result of the poll :— Adams. Pitt. Provincial Hall ... 137 ' 148 Oddfellows' Hall ... 232 104 Totals ... 369 252 Majority for Adams 117

A recent Dunedin telegram says :— The first prosecution under the Cruelty to Animals Act took place at the Police Court to day. John Meiklejohn and John Swan were proceeded against for lashing a horse in a coal dray over the legs and the head. The evidence showed they had thrashed the animal til! it broke one of its legs. They took it out of the shafts, tied ita three legs together, knocked it on the head with a hammer, and then while still alive got a chain round its peck, secured it to another horse, and tried to draw the poor auimal into a tilted dray. Evidence of a peculiar revolting nature was given by Mr Elliott, a Justice of the Peace, who witnessed the occurrence. The defendants were only fined ten shillings. The " Australian and New Zealand Gazette " of the 18th November, reviewa, at Considerable length, In a very favorable liianncr, the extraordinary progress being made by New Zealand. The concluding portion of the article is as! follows i— " And all this mighty bulk of mercantile enterprise must be the work of, at the very utmost, less than one quarter of a million of persons, whose exertions have thus lifted the colony to a commercial power and opulence which, doubtless, is secretly envied by more than one of the old established States in Europe. Competent authorities, who are intimately acquainted with the material capacities of New Zealand, tell us that the two principal islands will eventually, support a population of nt least fourteen or fifteen millions ; several millions more, Indeed, might be maintained, were it not that the Southern Island includes along its centre much barren mountain, which it is not probable can be brought under cultivation. This means, in a word, that the population may expand so far as to become twenty-five times as great as it is now. Should the evolution of material wealth proceed in the same ratio, We may, indeed, expect that the future of the Britain of the South will be something beyond what the world has yet seen in the way of human progress."

Landlords (says the Wellington Argut\ are sometimes left strange legacies by tbeir lodgers. A young man who had been staying at a certain hotel in Wellington, and wqo had very ingeniously succeeded in running up a two months' account, did not put in an appearance after having been spoken to regarding his bill. A few days afterwards the landlord opened the absconder's box, and found to his disgust that it contained nothing else but pieces of scantling carefully packed in leather shavings. The verdant boniface thought that he had ample security for the payment of hts little bill iv the heavy trunk of his debtor; but that individual was evidently an old hand at the " diddling" business.

A Parliamentary paper just issued shows thot in the year 1877, 2662 lives were lost in England and Wales by drowning ia inland waters. Of the persona whose lives were lost, 2140 were males and 522 females ; 1423 lives were lost in rivers and running waters 637 in canals, and 602 in lakes or ponds The formation of a siege train is 3t present engaging the attention of the French Government, and one firm, according' to the Standard, has received orders for nearly 100 guns of the heaviest calibre. They are to be 18 feet in length, with Armstrong rifling, and will throw a projectile of SdOlbs weight. The Bristol Times and Mirror has the following interesting paragraph:— "A novel and Interesting experiment was tried in Bristol on Thursday evening, November 28. The Key. Phillip Sleeman, F.R.A.S., &c, took his electric light apparatus to the cathedral and erected an electric lamp or regulator on Foucault's principle, on the top of the screen. It was intended more particularly to ascertain the effect of the electric light in illuminating the large open space immediately in front of the choir screen; but a pood general idea was also obtained of the brilliant results which might be realised if the light could be applied on a sufficiently extensive scale for the illumination of the nave itself. This is the first time that the electric light has been introduced within the walls of a cathedral ; or, indeed we believe, within any sacred edifice whatever. It is jti3t possible that this seemingly unimportant matter may be of historic interest. There was a great contrast between the electric light and the light of the gas. At the door of the west end of the new uave a person could read with ease, whilst a person standing near the screen could but indistinctly see the letters of a book by the light of a gas standard with about fifty jets. So great was the power of the electric light that it even cast shaddows of the gas lights upon the walls. The side aisles, however, were almost entirely in the dark, owing to the shadows of the pillars." It is related of a Chinaman that, having lost his umbrella, he hanged himself to avoid the trouble of looking for it. A suicide has just been committed in Paris under circumstances equally ludicrous and melancholy. An honest binder, employed more than 20 years in a Rouen house, had been sent up to the Paris Exhibition, hi 9 expenses being provided out of the Lottery Fund. The poor fellow enjoyed himself immensely, and would doubtless have felt grateful ever after to the Administration which had provided him with so delightful an entertainment foe nothing. Unhappily, however, workmen thus favored are expected to draw up a report of their experiences for tbe commissioners of the lottery. Now the binder had no sooner returned to his native city than his literary labor began to weigh on him like a nightmare. He was afraid he should be expected to give a full account of all the sections of the Exhibition, with copious observations on the wondrous things contained therein. If he did not do this, he was convinced that the Government would sue him for the cost of his trip. It was to no purpose that his comrades tried to cheer him up, and even offered to compose his report for him. Lesage, — such was the miserable man's name,— lost his appetite, grew morose and sullen, and one day disappeared from his home. His body was shortly afterwards found in the Seine. We (Timaru Herald) are sorry to learn that what givea promise of proving a very destructive jest, has of late made its appearance in a number of potato fields in this district. It is a sort of half-worm, half-cater-pillar looking insect, about half an inch long, and with a dirty while-colored body and black head. From ail we can gather, it attacks the tuber of the potato just at the foot of the stalk, and gradually eating its way into the bulb, at last causes it to rot. One farmer who was in town on Saturday, assured us that fully one-third of his entire crop of about five acres have been all but destroyed by this pest. It seems to be the same insect which one frequently notices in peaches and plums, and which generally covers the hole it bores with a sort of web similar to a spider's. If what we hear about the ravages it is committing amongst the potato crops is true — and we certainly have not the slightest grounds for believing anything to tbe contrary — this new pest should be looked after as carefully as the Colorado bettle.

All the saloon and liquor shops in Richmond, Virginia, were closed on Sunday recently, for the first time, it is said, in the memory of the oldest citizen. It is regarded as a triumph of Puritanism. There was a pretty good blow at Napier last Friday. A telegram of that date says : Ryiner't coach to Puketapu was blown over in a gale of wind. The driver alone was injured, but not seriously. — A brick chimney of the Hon. H. R.;RnsseH's establishment was blown down. His vats were at the time full of sheep, which were smothered by the debris.

A contract has been signed by a London firm and forwarded to Berlin for the purpose of raising the German ironclad Groaacr Kurf urst.

A correspondent of the London Standard gives an account of the fruits of Afghanistan, which recalls to mind the report of the Tsraelitish spies on the return from the brook of Eshcol. He says :-" The fruit all along the line of march is cheap, and in great quantity. As for its quality, I have never seen it "equalled in any country in the world. There is one kind of grape of which it is no exaggeration to say that each one is the size of a large walnut, and the bunches are often so long that a tall man cannot hold them clear of the ground."

An explosion of nitro-glycerine and gunpowder occurred at St Bernard coal mines at Earlington, Kentucky, recently. The shock was felt for miles. A train of mining cars, mules, and negro drivers were blown to.atom 3. There was a panic among the miners.