NOTES BY THE "WAY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 166, 13 April 1871, Page 5

NOTES BY THE "WAY.

(By our Vagabond Reporter.)

I think I have talked enough about the elections, lint the subject has been such a chronic nightmare to me that, like Dickens amiable maniac, and Charles 1., 1 can hardly write about anything else I have been, so to say, chased through the country by these informal ebullitions of a free constitution. I shall impress upon my representative, whoever he may be (thank goodness, I don't even know his name), the necessity of all elections taking place" upon the same day, and that the epitaphs upon Shepherd's virtues be confined to the disfiguring the blank walls of one district, instead of papering the entire up-country. I confess, notwithstanding a natural repugnance, to have remained at Naseby over the polling da} 7 , and to have witnessed the great triumph of the popular party over the myrmidons of squatterdom and metropolitanism . (N.B. — This is copyright, and not to be annexed by Bastings for his first speech in the Council). Mervyn was returned and the country saved. The wicked say that his committee locked him up in an upper chamber of the hostelry iv order to prevent the disallusionment of the free and independent, should they behold in the flesh the man of their choice. Certain it is that ha did not show up until four p.m., when himself and the aspiring Pratt -were to be seen amongst a dingy crowd regarding intently the door of the c-iHiiihoimo, which was soon to exhibit the crucial test of the ballot — the staie of the poll. Pratt 's face was a study when the round 0 was exhibited opposite his respected patronymic ; he gracefully faded out of the crowd, and was seen no mox'e. Mervyn indulged in what might be called a " blathering " speech, and laughed (and such a lauiA) at the discomfiture of the great men of Naseby, and retired apparently to the congenial taproom of his one supporter^ a Hibernian gentleman of the licensed victualler persuasion. There was grief that night, I can tell you, in the halls of George, and in the purlieus of Index* — strong language, liquor, and recrimination. 1, upon the strictest principles of neutrality, sided and drank with all. I had voted (according to my own account) for every candidate, so received the reward cf virtue from each party in frequently recurring turns, and eventually slept the sleep of the blest, I have reason to believe, in my boots. Now, there are two or three things in connection with this particular election that I, as an outsider, am at a loss to account for upon any known principles of practice (rather good expression, if intelligible). - Why did the storekeepers of Naseby work so hard to get iv a Dunedin man ? was there no "men of ability and character" in the whole Mount Ida district, and did they wish to adventure these to the colon} 1 - ? Why, when they were so anxious, did they not manage better than to be deluded into bringing in the Kyeburn miners and othei's, at a vast expense, who most solemnly voted the other Avay? Why did the candidate rcost\anxious for senatorial honours canvass Vicariously, while disporting himself with inconsequent rule nisi and other legal blatherdom; and why was he so notoriously unhappy in the selection of h\s agents'? Finally, what the could thfc electors see in Mervyn ? You can reflect upon these at your leisure, and Iforward answers when capable (J never expect to receive them). Mr. Macassey nlay congratulate himself so far, that, if returned, he would have been morally bound by the pledges made on his behalf ; and as his friends George and Shannon drove round the district, addressing meetings at every polling place, and generally late in the evening, even he, without a quo warranto, would have found a difficulty in either evasion or completion. He has been spared, I trust, for a better fate — to thrust noodledom from tlie throne of Dunedin. The electors of that enlightened city, when thoroughly surfeited of fools may perhaps look higher and recognise other qualifications than barroom vagrancy and street-corner oratory. There is nothing like a blockhead, Dunedin electoral proclaims, so long as he has has been a blockhead long enough ; and they did quite right to yoke him up with his fellow.