THE ELECTIONS

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 222, 1 October 1887, Page 2

THE ELECTIONS

Monday last was a day of great anxiety, not alone to the candidates for parliamentary honours in the respective electorates, but also to the electors gonerally. And it is right it should bo so, considering 1 the weighty responsibility that rests upon the representatives of the people, and how much tho interests and prosperity of a district is certain to he affected or retarded, according as the choico made by the people is a wise one or not. In fact to thinking men, and such as have tho real permanent good of the country at heart, it must appear almost marvellous how many, who enjoy the privilege afforded them by manhood suffrage as ill force in this colony, and who in other respects act as sensible men, allow themselves at election times to bo led away by those who have the gift of the gab, and often times record their votes in favour of candidates whose only recommendation (if it could be accounted such) is that of misrepresenting and maligning their opponents ; who are ready and willing to proinisu anything any voter asks for, no matter how unreasonable ; and who have no higher object in view in entering parliament than serving their own personal and selfish ends. Ak Te Aroha election day passed off very quietly, and it was only towards evening that anything like excitement .respecting the result evinced itself. The electors put in an appearance at the polling booth early in the day, even from the more distant portions of the district such as Shaftesbury and Gordon Settlement; whilst from Waiorongomai they principally voted in the afternoon. The contest, so far as Te Aroha was concerned, lay entirely between Messrs Uill and Kelly, as Captain Kerc's name was scarcely mentioned, except wheji some one expressed regret that he should havo been brought^ into the field at the eleventh hour and^

thus unfairly influenced what would otherwise Imv • been a r<ie<* confined to Messrs Qill ami Tvollv, who li.-i.i both veiled the yarioijs centres qI populalion, and interviews] frltf electors several weeks before Captoju |£orrs .iann was even mooted as a contestant There is not the slighpsh doubt that Mr Kelly tmy thank Oaptajn Kerr ?or being 1 torday the repre-» sentative foi Tanrangaj as tho support accorded Captait? JKcrr by the mem- \ bpra of the Now Zealand Alliance! nfc Tmrnnga and elsewhere would I otherwise have been accorded Mr Gill. The New Zealand Alliance tried to influence the Te Aroha members of that society to vote for Cnptain Kerr, hut we are informed the reply sent was to tho effect that votes recorded in his favour would be worse than thrown away, and that they would vofe for Gill. Te Arolm electors polled as follows : Gill, 117, Kelly, 77, Kerr *, informnl 2: Amongst Waiorcngomai electors Gill w»s a warm f.ivoutite. At Kati Kuti also had more than two to one of the votes recorded were iv his favour. The Waikato election was tho subject of almost if not quite 'as much interest to Te Aroha residents as Tanranga, tho feolinjr being strongly iv favor of Mr J. B. Whyte, our late member, and tho news of his heinj? elected was received with many mmifestations of satisfaction. Much interest was also felt in Coromande! election, the general feeling being however, that which ever candidate were returned ho would endeavour to forward as far as possible the interests of thegoldfield general'y. Tho telegraph office presented a lively appearance up lo past midnight, and the returns issued both that night and next morning from this office were eagerly watched for. Kverybo-ly seems glud tho elections are over, as they occasioned a restlessness for days previously, which was not favourable to business generally. It is to be hoped now that they are a thing of tho past, those who differed with their fellow men as to the merits and demerits of the j sevoral candidates, and tho measures they supported, will not permit any ill feeling estrangement to remain, and we trust our new member will prove himself in every way worthy of the confidence taut has been placed in him. The result of the elections throughout the Colony will be found in our supplement to-day.