West Coast Times. SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 1868.

Me Harrison" has been elected by a majority of seventeen votes over Mr Shaw, as Member for the Westland Boroughs in the General Assembly. Eighty-nine electors voted for Mr Har : rison at Greymouth, and one for Mr Shaw. Eighty electors voted for Mr Shaw at Hokitika, and nine for MiHarrison. We are glad to find that Mr Shaw has only nine enemies on the Elcctorial Roll in Hokitika. That Mr Harrison polled as many as nine votes here, is some proof of the existence of an independent opinion. That Mr Shaw polled only one vote at Greymouth is still plainer proof that Greymouth has no independent public opinion whatever. Mr Harrison, who was defeated on two occasions as a candidate for a seat in the Provincial Council, and elected to the seat he at present holds on the County Council by a majority of two votes only, was, yesterday*, elected to the, Assembly by the unanimous choice of the Grey electors—minus one ! On this occasion all Greymouth parties and factions united in a common cause. They would not have a Hokitika man! That is the wholo reading of the matter. The electors who would not have Mr Harrison to be their member in the County Council, came to his rescue yesterday, when it was found that a Hokitika man was in the field. It was not a question of personal merits upon which the contest hinged. It was a question of the supremacy of the two towns. It so happens that a very much larger number of persons are qualified to vote

in Greymouth thajL in Hokitika. Nearly all the holders of Miners' Rights in the Grey district took out their rights in the Warden's Court at Greymouth. According to the electoral law, these voters are disqualified fo l ' the district, and only entitled to record their suffrages for the town. In the case of Hokitika the circumstances are entirely different. Here we have a hona fide town constituency — the number of miners qualified to vote being only few. In Greymouth the town constituency is very small, and it is swamped by the holders of the miner's franchise. If the voting yesterday had been confined to the real town electors, Mr Shaw would undoubtedly have been returned by a very substantial majority. I The result of the election shows the absurdity of the arrangement by which, in the first place, the holders of Miners' Rights are enabled to be brought in to swamp the town constituencies, and, in the second place, the two towns are thrown into one electorate. Mr Harrison is the chosen man of Greymouth. Mr Shaw is the chosen man of Hokitika. But Greymouth swamps Hokitika. It has been simply a contest between town and town. And Greymouth has beaten, because, as we have said, the mining franchise has given it a numerical superiority over the household electors of Hokitika. We must submit to the result ; but we are certainly not content witb it, because it shows that the whole electoral arrangement is bas?d upon a false foundation. Mr Shaw has certainly every right to be proud of the position he holds on the poll. He bad no right to expect a single vote at the Grey ; but he actually polled one. He had every right to expect a display of hostility in Hokitika; but his unfriends only mustered nine ! As the Mayor of the town his position is immensely strengthened by this last appeal to the electors. Eighty town votes against nine is something to be put on record.

Mr T. S. Maude, the chief Census Enumerator courteously forwards us the telegram which we publish below. We need scarcely say that the return of the population for Westland is altogether fallacious, and that the official figures might, without much fear of being inaccurate, be doubled. It has long been a matter of notoriety that the Census forms were very imperfectly distributed, and very imperfectly called in. Forms were thrown into diggers' tents and huts, and " left to be called for," and when called for, the miners we absent working in their claims. The returns collected are most unsatisfactory, as calculated to produce a false impression both in the colony and out of it, of the actual population of Westland. We shall be curious, when time and convenience allow us, to test the figures forwarded to Mr Maude by the Customs and gold returns. If they at all approximate to correctness, we must be the greatest consumers as a people of dutiable articles, on the face of the whole globe, and must divide gold spoils amongst us in a larger individual proportion than the people of any other goldfield in the world. We regard the return, with the exception of the town districts, as purely farcical, but give the figures as forwarded to us, thanking MiMaude for his courtesy :—: — Westland Boroughs as before - - - 6,473 Westlaud South - ' - 9,059 Total— Westland South of River Grey - 15,532 Total— Canterbury East 38,260 Total - - 53,792

The hearing of evidenco on the part of the Crown against the prisoners Manning, Larkin, Melody, Clarke, Barrett, Harron, andHannan, will be resumed at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, at eleven o'clock. We un iorstand there is only one witness remaining to be heard for the completion of the case against the prisoners before the case for the defence is opened. From official sources we learn that the mining population of the Kanieri District is set down at 2400 souls, distributed as follows : Blue Spur, about 900 inhabitants : tho Hau Hau Lead, 500 ; Little Paddock, 100 ; Big Paddock, between 400 and 500; Kanieri (township), 200 ; and the Eight-mile, 300. The whole district is represented as peaceable, and remarkably free from crime, there being only a few petty cases of larceny reported by the police. In view of recent events, we are happy to learn from the police authorities that tho latest accounts from the Waimea and surrounding districts represent matters a3 tranquil. Yesterday afternoon, about two o'clock, the Greymouth coach arrived in town, with the following passengers : — Mr Shaw, Mr Arthur, and Mrs Gething. The road is reported as in good order. In tho Resident Magistrate's Court yesterday, Andrew M' Arthur was fined 103 for being drunk and incapable, with the usual alternative. William Posselwhite and Patrick Molloy, for a breach of tho peace in view of a constable, were each fined LI, with the option of eight-and-forty hours' imprisonment in default of payment. W. Smith, for us"ing abusive and insulting language towards Margaret Turner, calculated to provoke a breach of tho peace, was fined 5s and costs. There was only a moderate house at tho City Thcatro last night. The uncertain and disagreeable stale of the weather no doubt having a material influence on tho attendance. Theperformances generally, however, were well received, and on tho wholo may be pronounced to have given great satisfaction. More particularly was this evidenced in one of Mr

West's patriotic songs, which was ' lustily cheered. The performance on the horizontal bar, by Mr Loyal, was also a feature in the evening's amusement well appropriated. Messrs Taylor and Howson's Ethiopian eccentricities, however, were the principal sourco of merriment, the audience enjoying them immensely. The American prize jig dance, as is usually the case, was an undoubted succesi, almost the only event of the evening procuring an encore. We are given to understand that an unusually liberal programme is in preparation for this evening. The German residents of Hokitika and surrounding districts are requested to attend a meeting, to be held at Hanseu's Post Office Hotel, to-morrow (Sunday) the sth inst, at three o'clock in the afternoon, to consider the prepared address to his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. The public holiday announced for Thursday next is postponed until further notice. We lake the following items from the Melbourne papers :—": — " At St. Patrick's supper and ball in the evening, Mr C. G. Duffy was present, and proposed the toast, " A speedy recovery to the Prince," which was cordially received. — Mr Duffy defended the Irish colonists from the charge of treasonable practices. — O'Farrell has confessed. Two months ago orders arrived [from Fenian head-quarters to kill the Prince. Ten men swore to do it. — O'Farrell was chosen by lot out of the ten. He attempted twice, and failed. The names of the- accomplices have not transpired. — -The New South Wales Treason Felony Bill has received Royal assent. — Mr Q-eorge Thorne is recovering slowly. — Three policemenhave been dismissed from the Sydney force for Fenian proclivities. — Messrs Lee and M'Pherson have been bound over to appear on 11th May, to answer a charge arising out of the late fracas in Parliament. — Five persons have been murdered at Yass, N.S.W. The murderer's name is Collins alias Monday, a ticket-of-leave man. He has been apprehended and confessed. We take the following from the " Otago Daily Times," March 28 :—" Our Victorian telegrams, published in another column, contains an announcement which will cause very general regret in this province, if it is acted out — namely, that Mr Wilson Gray has been appointed as District Judge at Geelong. Mr Gray, as District Judge in Otago, has, we believe, given unmixed satisfaction to all classes., The estimate of Mr Gray's abilities which has been formed by the General Government is attested by a single fact — he was asked, and re-asked, to accept the position of Acting Judge in the Supreme Court for the Otago and Southland District, during the absence of Mr Justice Chapman, who will shortly visit England. If we are not misinformed, however, Mr Gray, in declining this offer, was not in the least degree influenced by any idea of a Victorian appointment ; and if he now accepts that appointment, he will return to Victoria esteemed by all Otagans, and his absence will be regretted by them. On dit, that the Acting Judgeship here has been offered to Mr Dudley Ward, the District Judge at Wellington."