Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 129, 3 August 1866, Page 3

Had the proposed law been in force "when Burgess and Kelly were convicted of firing at the police in Otago, a punishment of three years and a half's imprisonment would hardly have been deemed sufficient. The Defence Minister has stated in the House that it is not the intention of the Government to amend the Volunteer Act, so as to exempt volunteers from serving on juries. The reason assigned is the smallness of the present jury list, and the great number of persons already exempted from serving. The miners of the Nevis, in Otago, have requested the Government though thenrepresentatives to amend the present Goldfields Act. They propose the repeal of the powers vested in the Governor of delegating the management of the gold-fields to the provincial authorities; the resumption by the government of the gold-fields administration, with a member of the ministry, as responsible minister of mines ; an annual miner's right to be valid in any part of the colony ; and the establishment of mining boards, on the Victorian system, with payment of members. The Otago Municipality Bill, appears to be highly appreciated in the various districts of that Province. The Otago Provincial Government Gazette states that no less than eight districts have taken advantage of its provisions, viz. : — Port Chalmers, Cromwell, Clyde, Milton, WestHawksbury, Queenstown Oamaru, and Lawrence. There is little doubt that this Act will work well. It is the very embodiment of local self-government, and there is reason to believe will be adopted in all the leading Provinces of New Zealand.

A meeting of the Provincial Executive was held to-day, for the purpose of considering a petition which had been presented to the Superintendent against the late election of four members to the Nelson Board of Works. The petition was founded on the 10th clause of the Kelson Improvement Act, which requires that all questions and disputes which may arise concerning the election of any members of the Board shall he referred to the Superintendent and Executive Council, by the petition in writing of five or more electors, within ten days after the election has taken place. This morning Dr. Irvine, Messrs. N. Edwards, Pollock, Smallbone, Percy, Hornby, aud Fisher, attended the meeting of the Executive Council for the purpose of giving evidence in proof of the illegality of the election of the 30th ult. The Executive Council, after hearing evidence on the subject, decided that the election in question was not conducted according to laAV, aud that it was consequently, invalid. Another election will, therefore, take place. As neither the members recently elected to the Board nor the ratepayers are responsible for the mistake which has rendered the election invalid, it is to be hoped that the same members will come forward again, and that the ratepayers will return them by a triumphant majority. The illegality in the mode of the late electiou cannot be justified on any gi'ound ; at the same time it is but fair to state that the Returning Officer and Secretary were quite inexperienced in the mode of voting adopted in New Zealand. An error of judgment ought not to be magnified, as is attempted to be done by some parties, into dishonest conduct. Abundant proof is at hand to satisfy the most captious, that the Returning Officer and Secretary acted in the most open and conscientious manner. Whilst admitting that the result of the election is sufficiently unfortunate, we cannot refrain from calling on the ratepayers to inquire whether the cry raised by certain parties against the Board does not proceed as much from personal antipathy to some of its members, and disappointed vanity, as from an anxiety to maintain the purity of election. The affair is in the hands of the Nelson ratepayers, and we shall be very much mistaken if they do not at the next election, return the four recently elected members, by such a majority as will for ever extinguish the contemptible cliquism which affects to monopolise all the private and public virtue of the town. The interest taken in the examination of the prisoners charged with the Maungatapu murders yesterday, was shown in the unusual demand for the Evening Mail. The office was besieged all the evening 1 by persons anxious to read our report of the proceedings in the Resident Magistrate's Court. Between fourteen and fifteen hundred copies were issued. The Government have resolved to introduce a vagrant bill, which shall operate throughout the colony. This will put a stop to the practice of driving criminals from one .province to another. It is also intimated that in preparing the measure, regard will be had to the previous career of men convicted of great crimes. The judges have power already to take into consideration, in passing sentence on prisoners, previous convictions in this colony ; and Mr. Stafford says he does not see why they should not also take evidence of convictions in the other colonies.