THE ELECTION.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1309, 17 June 1880, Page 2

THE ELECTION.

The election for a member of the House of Representatives for this district in the room of Mr. T. W. Hislop resulted in the return of Mr, George Jones by a majority of 109 votes over Mr. John Reid. This result was made known about twenty minutes to 11 o'clock last night, after the ballot-papers from the various country polling places had been checked over. Shortly before 7 o'clock the state of the poll for the town was announced by Mr. T. W. Parker, Returning Officer, and when it was then shown that Mr. Jones had a majority of 172 in town, anc} that the returns frorq the retraining booths could not alter the general result, aheers were freely given for the member eleot. The large crowd in the street was almost driven wild with excitement, and with questionable taste proceeded to parade the street with an effigy intended to represent Mr. Reid, singing as they went j along songs in disparagement of that gentleman. Shortly after 8 o'clock, ISfo, 1 Company's Band, of whioh Mr, Jones is hoqqrary conductor, turned out and paraded Thames-street, playing lively airs, and were accompanied by an immense, and, considering the excitement of the occasion, orderly crowd, bearing aloft torches. The soene presented was a very animated one, and gave evidence of the excitement that the election had created—an excitement- exceeding far | and away anything ever known in Oamaru. The procession on arriving at Mr. Jones' house came to a halt, th© bq,n(J playing " See the conquering hero comes," find -file's a jolly good fellow." Three xsheers were given for Mr. Jones, followed by groans for the other candidates, and the vigorous beating of the inanimate representative of Mr. Reid with sticks, | the bundle of straw and old clothes suffer- '* jng very .considerably by the cruel on-' slaught. The band, and its hundreds of, fc&Lowieirs, then returned -to the Court-,

house to await the announcement of tho result. Here the Bcene became exceedingly lively. After burning the effigy in ..front of Mr. Reid's Committee rooms, and casting 'the charred remains into tho creek, the crowd indulged very impartially in the free distribution of flour and eggs, the former in small and fragile bags, and the latter in their uncooked, but, our reporter is pleased to say, perfectly fresh state. There was no attempt to single out particular individuals, except in tho case of the police, who, standing as they , did on tho steps of the Courthouse found prominent targets for the harmless, but unpleasant, missies. Friend and foe were treated alike, the object of the crowd being apparently to obtain amusement without showing auy particular spite or unfriendly feeling. After this sort of thing had been carried on for some time, the Returning Officer, accompanied by his deputies and the scrutineers of tho several candidates, appeared at tho door of the Court, and this was the signal for a cessation of hostilities. Mr. Parker then announced the aggregate result as follows :—Mr. Jones, 775 ; Mr. Reid, 666 ; Mr. Roberts, 168. The result was received with vociferous cheering, which was reneSved when Mr. Jones' majority of 109 was announced. Mr. Parker concluded by intimating that the official declaration of the poll would be made at noon on Saturday. The result having been made, known, the crowd quickly dispersed, the excitement died away marvellously quickly after all doubt had been dispelled, and within a. short time the streets resumed their wonted stillness. We are pleased to say that, notwithstanding the excitement, not a single case of drunkenness oame under our notice, and that, despite the large numbers in tho streets and the amount of one kind of rowdyism, there was very little damage of property, and that little took the form of the breaking of two or three panes of glass, caused by the swaying of the crowd in front of shop windows. The following is a detailed statement of the voting at the several polling

Totals ... 773 666 168 In all there were 31 informal votes, and of these 22 were given ii). Qamaru. In the majority of these cases tKe voters evidently intended to vote for Mr. Jones, many of them having the words written aoross them "I vote for Jones," _ while others had a cross opposite the candidate's name. In some cases it was impossible to say how the electors intended to vote, for the whole of the names were obliterated. Including the. informal votes, 1640 votes were recorded out of a total of 2402 on the roll, so that 762 of those entitled to vote did not exercise their privilege of saying who should represent them in Parliament. Many of these of Qoursa ara electors residing out of the distriot who could not attend, while owing to thoir dilatorinesa many others arrived at the polling booths too late to vote. Of the voters residing in' Dunedin a fair proportion voted, several doing so at Oamaru and no less than 14 at Hampden.

booths :— JONES. REID. ROBERTS Oamaru 492 320 132 Awamoko ... 12 11 3 Cave Valley.. 12 24 0 Duntroon ... 19 35 0 Hampden ... 51 351 Kakanui ... 25 82 11 Livingstone ie 9 1 Maheno «. > 24 35 . 1 Ngapara ... 59 53 2 Qtepopo 30 11 U Papakaio ... 5 21 3 Pukeuri ... 19 14 1 Teaneraki ... 11 68 2