The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 457, 10 September 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1879.

There is a natural anxiety to forecast the six days that remain for the completion of the elections. What the result of Sir George’s appeal to the country will be, is a question that puts every merely local topic into the shade. There is all the interest of a game of chance attached to the progress of the election ; for it cannot be doubted that each separate seat is obtaned on purely local grorrnds. To which side the majority of the best promisers will belong, is the point that chance must decide. That the Grey party are leaving no stone unturned to maintain their pre-eminence in the matter of promise making is abundantly clear from the telegram that the Hon Colonel Whitmore sent to Mr Ingles. If Mr Ingles would contest Cheviot with Mr Saunders, an Oppositionist, he should receive all the support the Government could give him, and his claim for consideration should receive favorable attention whether he was successful or not ! The language is English, but the morals are American. Apropos Colonel Whitmore and telegrams, is there not a kind of poetical justice in the mis-can iage of this telegram ? Is not “ Mrs Ingles ” as much like “Mr Ingles” as “ Whitmore ”is like “ Waterhouse ?” Even Colonial Secretaries can’t have all the mistakes of the department in their favour. Although it is quite impossible to foretell the exact result of the present contest, we may satisfy our curiosity by judging the ponding elections by those that are over. Last night there were, including four Maori members, sixtynine out ot the eighty-ci-'lifc members of the House, elected. As, however, eight or nine of these wore elected yestoxday, we are not yet in possession of all the names. A short study of the list we print elsewhere will, however, show that the Greyites arc not in the majority, but the sprinkling of new men is so considerable as to render any certainty impossible. Respecting the individual men returned, a few words may be oaid. Hitherto, the Government party appear to have secured their big men from dcfonf Air Macandrew had a narrow escape, out a miss is as guuu as a nmu. Sir George is also safe, although there is a possibility, though scarcely a probability, ftf his defeat in Christchurch today. Of the five candidates standing for Christchurch, Mr Treadwell may be confidently pronounced out of the running, and Mr S. P. Andrews, the working man’s candidate, is a very ordinary man, and suffered a heavy defeat in the last election at the hands of Mr Moorhonse. It is not at all probable that he will prosper against Sir George, who will, no doubt, draw away a large portion of the working men, in addition to the other supporters he is bound to secure. The Grey party may therefore, perhaps, be able to boast that not one of their leading men has been defeated, while the Opposition will have no suck comfort, Mr Whitaker and Sir W. Fox were lost in a day. But, on the other hand, the Opposition have replaced Mr Ballance, inßangitikei, with a staunch friend, and have put no less a man than the Hon John Hall in the place of the weakling, Mr Fitxroy, for Selwyn. In Grey and Bell they may claim having secured an additional vote, as they may also in Invercargill, and several other places. All parties will rejoice in the decision of the Hokitika electors, which relegated Mr Barff to his place—out of the House. His miserable ratting was too glaring to be overlooked ; he was only 451 from the head of the poll, and 351 from securing the second seat. The House of Representatives has certainly become a more respectable body by the resolution of Hokitika to trv a new man.