ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1882, 29 July 1884, Page 3

ECHOES FROM THE CAFE.

The eventful clay has come aud gone — the General Election has taken place and all that is now left for us to do is to sit down and count the gains aud the loses. So far as this Provincial Distrht is concerned the result is, on the whole, satis factory. Tt ceitainly is a pity that Mr Dargaville has been re-elected for City West, but as fur Us that is concerned we aie in reality no worse off than we were before, except inasmuch as s\e have lost Mr Swanson's personal services, which were undoubtedly valuable. The woist feature in the case is that, I believe, Mr Swanson's defeat was avoidable, as I feel sure that it was due to want of proper organisation. One thing is very certain, and that is that Mr Dargaville has not impioved his position by the way in which lie has conducted Ins election. Sir George Giey must feel very wroth at the defeat of so many of his supportois, which lias caused his own re-election to be n veiy bait on triumph, His nephew, Mr Seymour Thorne George, who left his former constituency of Rodney and sought to oust Mr Moss from Parnell, has been defeated. His friends, Messrs De Lautourand Gannon, whom he unlaced to come up here and contest Newton and Bay of Island*, wcie beaten by Messrs Peacock and llobbs. Jli-> f uthfiil henchman, Mr W. L Kces, to improve whose chance of election he got \lr Gannon to len\ c the East Const for the Boy of Islands, has once more been beaten by Mr Locke. His senile follower, Majoi Jlains, lias at last succumbed to the persistant effoits ot the redoubtable Jiuckland. Mr WiUon, who opposed Mr Moat for Rodney at his invitation is among the 1 ejected, as is Mr Lawiy, whom he siij'poitjd for Manukau.

The action of Sir (4eorgo Orey, in suppoiting Mr Law iy against Sir Main ice O'Eoike has alienated horn him some of the best of those who still remained his admirers, such, for instance, as the pio pi ie tor of the Cafe, as the says, tluue arc few people who Lnow the steilinj worth of Sir Mmi ice The old identities aie gradually disappearing and then places aie being filled by " new chums ' who do not know the lustoiy of New Zealand. " How many of the piesent eleetois of Manukau know tint, when Sir Main ins Mas a member of the Ministry which decided on the abolition of the pio\inccs. he resigned his poi t folio and val'ud over to the Opposition benches ? ' ho as'^ed me, I admitted t nit I did not think that theio weie veiy many. " Then which of the lm-mbeis," he eiicjuiied, " do you think would resign the honoms and emoluments belonging to a seat in the Mmistiy because bib conscience did not a]ipio\c of the actions of Ilia colleagues?" 1 suggest Daigasille.

SirOeoige Giey may, pet haps-, think he liah "aiiictl a suppoi ter by tho election of Mr Thompson ior City Noith, the constituency iopie»entod by Mr Peacock in the last l'ailiamont I bdievc that Mt Thompson was asked to stand by Sn Geoige, he a\o\ved himself as a suppot tor of his principles and acknowledged him as the leader of the Libeial paity, but he did not piomise to follow him wheievcr he should lead, and those who know Mr Thompson bast say that if he has to decide between Sir George Grey and tho inteiests of Auckland, the (heat Pro Consul will not have the member foi City Noith at his back Mr Newman, who opposed Mr Thompson, made a \eiy poor show. Ho trusted vciy much to the Bine Ribbon Aimy, believing that, as their candidates had been elected as the Licensing Committees, they wore stiong eno.igh to elect him for City North. Where he made a serious mistake was in supposing that it was the teetotalleis who elected tho picsent licensing committees, I beliexe that they weio quite unable to do so and that the elections weic earned by the moderate men. lie made another mistake in ad diessing the eluetot , Instead of gnmg v pia.ctio.il ->peceh, dealing with the ques ticiis of the day, lie nilhcted on his hpaun-s a long ligmiioli about tho state of City Noith when he built the fiist hou-ac in it neail) half a century ago. llo\ve\ er, the main reason ot his defeat w;ia liis peieonal unpopularity and the popularity of his opponent, who ha<. many fuends m the electoiate, and bears the leputation of being a sensible bus-i-ne^s-hke man.

That is a very queer story that is told about the omission of the polling .it KuiiK-u in the Waitemata eloctoiate. It i& stated tint the leturning offi 'ci did not receive msti notions to act in .that capacity until neaily noon on the election day, tli.it he opened Hie polling place, hut that Mr Farncell, who happened to be tlieie, objected to the polling taking place, and it had not begun at the pioper hournine o'clock — and that the leturning otlieei thereupon closed the polling-place and rode aw ly to Devonpoit, to report the occunencc It certainly does seem stiange that Mr F.irnall should have happened to be at Kiimcu, one ot the most insignificant places in the electorate, and still moip stiange than the returning officer should have allowed one of tho candidates to induce or intimidate him to close the polling-place. It looks rather like an attempt to invalidate the election. FTowe\er, seeing that, if all the votes in the Kumeu district weie gi\en to Mi Farnall it would not affect the result (Mr Iluist ha\ing a majoiity of 400 elsewhere) it ib probable that the Governor will, Vy an Oidei-in Conned, declate Mr Hurst to be duly elected, despite the informality. This little incident really looks like a pi oof of the Anglo-Isiael theory, foi it seems as if Mr Farnall were a lineal descendant of Jacob, the "supplanter." *,, t * Well ! I think it is about time to leave election matteis, which I will do after expiesbing my sincere hope that the tnembeis elected to Parliament will endeavour, as far as possible, to forget Darty differences and work together for the good of the colony as a whole. There is one thing, however, that I would like to refer to. Knowing that there was a possibility of the Government of which he is a member being in a hopeless minority, the lion. E. Mitchelson, on Monday, accepted a tender for the construction of the Auckland Railway Station. Of course a tender would have been accepted whatever Ministry would have been in office, but Mr Mitchelson's prompt action has prevented delay, so we may hope before long to have a railway stathat will be a credit to Auckland, instead of a wretched shed, far inferior to the railway stations in the second-rate towns m the Middle Island.

We have at last got the tramcars running in our sheets, though they are not yet plying for hire, and cannot do so until the tramway has been inspected and approved of by Mr Ulackett, the Engi-neer-in-Chief for the North Island. They are certainly a great improvement on the omnibusses, which have hitherto formed the only means of communication between the city and most of the suburbs, and I have no doubt but that, as soon as they are able to run regularly, they will be well patronised. The only objection to them seems to be^hat they have no accomodation for those who prefer to be outside passengers. However, the directors of the company will doubtless remedy this defect as soon as they require an increase in their plant, which, I hope and believe will be very soon. There have been a number of objections to the tramcars on the part of the cabmen, who have been accustomed to stand in the middle of Queen-street, and who do not relish the idea of being compelled to relinquish their stands. Councillor Garretfc, who is an expressman, provoked a roar of laughter at the last meeting of the City Council by^saying that the expressmen had Bhown better taste than the cabmen, inasmuch as they had left their stands when requested to do so, whereas "'the cabmen had not only refused »tq move, | but had taken legal opinion, as. to Yfhetb&r

they could not insist on remaining.. However, there is every probability of the matter being amicably arranged, so that the cabmen will be provided with other stands, which will suit them as well as those they will have to relinquish. St. Musgo.