NORMANBY.

Patea Mail, 14 December 1881, Page 3

NORMANBY.

Tuesday. Some of Mr Hutchison’s supporters belonging to Normanby voted in Hawera and elsewhere, otherwise the majority' here would have been greater in his favor. The German element alone, over the whole voting, turned the scale, as it is now known that this gregarious people voted almost in a body at the bidding of their leaders. Some of them since could not give an intelligent reason, or any reason whatever, why they so voted. It is known also that a considerable number of new settlers (who were to be dreaded by the Major’s side) applied to be registered, and by some unexplained cause their names were not inserted on the roll. It is rather hard that a crowd of unnaturalised Germans should swamp the English constituents, who applied in the ordinary way and were deprived of thenvotes. However this may be, the return of Major Atkinson is a calamity to Egmont, and to Normanby in particular. There is not a shovel-full of gravel on one of our roads either in or around this town, if we except the little bit at the railway, and what has been placed on the main road by the private subscriptions of the settlers. All the money, the 25 percent. of the land, will henceforth be sunk in the Taranaki harbor, and the hope of getting our roads made and metalled is now more remote than ever. Parliament was willing, that in the event of the harbor being stopped, the 25 per cent, should be so expended. A correspondent lately asked where all the money was to be got which Mr Hutchison was promising ? He will now ask that in vain, with the Major returned and the harbor scheme as good as confirmed. It means both to him and every one else other fouryears wading up to the knees in mud—a very appropriare punishment to those who thus indirectly supported a scheme which drains us of the money we so much required. Had any local candidate of moderate pretensions come forward, the Major would not have been returned ; but even as it is, that 400 intelligent men should have pronounced against him in favor of a stranger, is most damaging evidence of his unpopularity.

With the Press and all the old settlers against him, 400 votes are most creditable to Mr Hutchison, and by' no means complimentary to Major Atkinson. Indeed the latter’s friends would have bet any money that he (Mr Hutchison) would not have secured half that number, and their surprise is now great. The truth is, even the Major’s own supporters would gladly have got rid of him, but having supported him so long, were ashamed to turn him out, lest they should become the laughing-stock of the new settlers. These latter were Mr Hutchison’s real supporters, and by next election their number will be doubled.

Unless the Major henceforth pursues a different course, he will not be returned again. In the meantime he has got a thorough and well merited drubbing and exposure, and returns to Parliament with a thorn in his side—with his influence crippled, and lowered in the estimation of the House and the country. The election here passed off with great good humor on both sides. All ordinary occupations were suspended for the day, with the exception of the hotels. These were well patronised, especially in the evening, when the merits of the rival candidates wore warmly discussed, under the inspiriting influence of repeated libations. The electors hung around the polling booth, divining the day> and passed the time in sparkling witticisms, merriment, and laughter. The committees of both candidates were actively on the alert, and pounced upon each elector as he made his appearance, with a round of rich and racy compliments. Men who on other occasions would have been passed unnoticed, ii; not with a scowl, were now received with an affection and solicitude the most tender and engaging, and a profusion of smiles the most bland and bewitching. In some oases this unexpected and unwontly reception grotesquely expressed itself in the pleased confusion of its bewildered recipient. But mine hosts of the hostelrics were not so easily caught, for men who have studied human nature in its unguarded moments are not to be ensnared by tact however nice, or flattery however skilled and refined. Now that the election has been fought and is fair! 3' over, all sensible men will forget and bury their political animosities, if a.ny r such existed. Each should henceforth work for the general advancement, and for such a work they have before

them a country unrivalled on the face of the earth. The native difficulty is crushed for ever ; the soil is rich beyond all usual fertility, and the climate is healthy, temperate and bracing. In Nonnanby, as in other parts of Egmont, the children are pictures of beauty and vigor, and our cattle can find no rival in the world. Add to this the surrounding scenery—the bush on the one side, the sea on the other—and between them both the mighty mountain, itself a thing of everlasting beauty. As the neighboring lands inform us, its enormous sides have been washed way by many ages of attrition ; but it will stand forever as it has done in the past—will bury its snow-clad summit in the clouds, and defy the indignation of the warring elements. Altogether the country around Normanby is richer in its soil and rarer in its scenery than most others in the north, and presents—as many travellers assure us—one of the loveliest of all lovely landscapes in these southern isles of the sea.