The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 14, 1879.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 166, 14 July 1879, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JULY 14, 1879.

The Government have displayed, or are about to display, their weakness in the matter of the election of a Chairman of Committees. Some time ago there were rumors of Mr Bunny being put forward as the Ministerial candidate, and then it was definately announced that it was to be so, and that Mr Seymour was to stand as the representative of the Opposition, and the election was looked forward to as one that would afford a very fair criterion of the relative strength of the two parties. On Saturday afternoon we were told that the Government were beginning to waver, and that they did not wish Mr Bunny to be regarded as their candidate, and later in the evening we received the following Press Agency telegram, which shows that the Government do not care to try conclusions with their opponents just yet :— " It is understood than in consequence of the feeling excited over the election of Chairman of Committees, and the Government declining to exercise their influence in favor of any particular candidate,|Mr Bunny will retire from the contest, and the probable result will be a walk over for Mr Seymour, the Government gracefully withdrawing their opposition in consideration of the way in which Mr O'Rorke's election was treated by the Opposition." Now, nobody who knows Sir George Grey will ever believe that gratitude for past favors could possibly influence him in a matter in which the ignoring o f them would assist him in achieving a victory over his political opponents, and we may rest assured that if he thought he could have shown bis strength in placing Mr Bunny in the Chair be would have done so, and the public would have been deprived of the amusement they will derive from a perusal of the pretty little euphemism announcing that the Government " gracefully withdraw their opposition " to Mr Seymour, who, as one of their stauncbest opponents, they would very much prefer to see turned out of the House altogether, instead of being raised to an honorable position in it. If the truth were known we subpect it would be found that the Premier had withdrawn his opposition with juat about as good a grace as that which characterised

his withdrawal of the Joini Stock Companies, Beer Tax, and Electoral Bills last session, which were shelved, not in consideration of any favors received from the Opposition, but because their introducers had not the strength to carry them. If we are not very much mistaken, it is for a precisely similar renson that Mr liunuy has, like another Jonah, been thrown overboard by those who wish to keep their ship above water for yet a little longer. The New Zealander of Thursday last passes some severe strictures upon the presiding Magistrates in the recent case3 of the Police verms W. Cooksey, for the decision they arrived at, or. perhap?, it would be moie correct to say, for the reason they gave for the sentence. The article Concludes as follows : -"The whole question ot the appoiutroent of Magistrates is one that might with great advantage be enquired iuto by Parliament, and if a purgation of the existing roll followed, it would tend greatly towards making a justiceship what it ought to be, a i deserved honor where bestowed, and not what it is now, a dignity conferred on mammon, or the unjustifiable reward of political intrigue." The election of a Chairman of Committees take place to-morrow in br,th House?. Maior Richmond having decided to vacate the Chair in the Legislative Council, of which he has hitherto been the sole occupant. Some hard things are likely to be said by the "Lords" in reference to the pitch-fork ing of Sir W. Fitzherbert first into the Council and then into the Speaker's chair, to which more than one of the Legislative ! Councillors had far superior claims. In fact it seems that the Government will have to face innumerable fresh breezes from all points of the compass. A correspondent telegraphs to us from vVakefield-.— "On Saturday at Dovedale a young woman named Ada Lee Eban went into the bush to look for eggs, a&d as she did not return that day or night a search party | went out yesterday morning, and towards evening found her body in the bush. It i3 supposed that she must have fallen down in a fit." The following are the resnlts of the Motueka Highway Board elections i —tor the Motueka sub-district, the retiring member, Mr Samuel Carter, was re-elected unopposed; For the Lower Moutere sub-district, the retiring member, Mr William Edwards, was, after a poll, defeated by Mr Arthur Chaytor, the votes being—Chaytor 14, Edwards 13; for the Pangatotara sub-district, the retiring member, Mr Thomas Grooby, on arriving at the place of meeting a few minutes past noon, found that he had been re-elected without opposition; for the Riwaka subdistrict, Mr Daniel Bate was elected, defeating the retiring member, Mr W. Askew, also Mr C. Fry, the votes being — Bate 17, Fry 14, Askew 8. Daniel Ryan charged with stealing on the 6th inst, £2, a silk pocket handkerchief, and a match box from William Cole of Foxhill, a contractor, was this morning brought before Messrs. Sclanders and Dodson, J. J.P. The evidence went to show that Cole and the prisoner bad been together a good deal during the day, and that the former had lent him five shillings. In the evening the two were in a room at the Royal Hotel, and Cole was sleeping on a sofa when Mr Parmenter, the landlord, chanced to enter and found the prisoner fumbling about Cole's pockets when he ordered him to desist. The prisoner then left and shortly afterwards Cole missed the articles mentioned, some of which were eventually found on the prisoner, who was sentenced to two months imprisonment. What does it mean ? The Auckland i Herald of Tuesday last publishes the following startling telegram from Nelson:—' The steamer Wakatu, having been moved on the ways down to the tide, was successfully launched over to the Corporation wharf, where she will be fitted with her guns, &c." Can it be that it is all a blind about the steamer being for Messrs Cross and Co., 'and \ that Messrs Moutray and Crosbie have taken a contract to supply Te Whiti with a fleet of gunboat3, of which this is the first? We shall watch the career of the Wakatu with anxiety as well as interest after she has been j " fitted with her guns " and gone to sea. In an article ou the personal changes that have taken place in Parliament the Post says :— " Mr Sharp, the Jate member for Nelson City, has given place to Mr Adams, who is a member of the legal profession, and a good speaker, though somewhat of a novice in politics. His vote will probably be generally recorded by the Ministerial tellers. Mr Sharp's used to be always a rather doubtful one." The Fost and the Government, we imagine, will be a little taken by surprise if they reckon on Mr Adams' vote " being generally recorded by the Ministerial tellers " \ The annual meeting of the parishioners of All Saints will be held at the Church Institute this evening, and that of Christ Church parishioners in the Schoolroom inShelbourne street to-morrow evening. According to the last census there are in the colony 53,737 bachelors, aged 20 year and upwards, and 28,071 spinsters, aged 15 years and upwardg, leaving an excess of 25,666 bachelors over spinsters. There are G3,424 husbands and 62,609 wives, the excess of husbands over wives being 515. Tbe total population of the Colony is 414,412, distributed as follows :— Auckland 82,661; Taranaki, 9,463; Wellington, 51,069! Hawkes'Bay, 15,015; Marlborough, 7,557Nelson, 25,128; Westland, 16,932; Canterbury, 91,922; Otago. 114,469; Chatham Islands, 196. This is exclusive of Maoris.