THE MATAURA ELECTION.

Bruce Herald, Volume XI, Issue 1081, 24 January 1879, Page 3

THE MATAURA ELECTION.

MR SHANKS ELECTED. The restflt^of the contest for the Mataura seat in the Hoiwe^of rEepresentatives h<ui proved an unqualified victory for Mr Shanks. That he expected such would be the case is no secret ; but his friends bad some doubt of the result and 'worked hard, theyljire therefore gratified at the issue, and ot which they have much to congratulate themselves upon. They had to fight against a sti ongparfcy and a .false, cry ; but with respect to the latter it began to lose its sting as the polling day drew near, and the public found out Mr Shanks was not what his opponents painted him.' The Mataura Valley has jstood by their man faithfully, and in, this they have bteen abhr assisted by Invercargill, its suburbs, "the -Bluff, and Longbush. Roslyn Bush was completely a 'Kinross stronghold, but not more so than Wyndham, Mataura Bridge, and Fortrosel were for Mr Shanks. The number polled by Mr Kinross at Gore can easily . be accounted for. In the fir t place several old friends of his are resident witnin a short distance of the town, and they were faithfully shepherded by Mr Kinross' scrutineer. Two if not three votes polled for him were intended for Me Shanks, and two or three voters came from Invercargill to watch proceedings. - • At Mataura, a number of the Tuturau viters proceeded to their achoolhouse to there record their votes as in former years ; fiadiug out the mistake they made all haste to the township, but arrived too late to vote. The hour of closing the booths deceived many voters, and it is rather strauge that the hour of closing the poll is not extended to 6 p.m. . Now tbat.ttie fight is over any one looking at the two cimidates impartially will hardly hesitate to admit that the best man has won. Mr Kinross speaks fluently, but this is, the most that can be said fur him, other than this, that he ia a warm supporter of every thing that would tend to settle the country. But he is too fond of parading^ himself— of what he has done and what his opponent could not do ; of his expert- - ence and hys opponent's inexperience, and that it would be i useless to send a man to Wellington who hid not been in the Provincial Council. He appears to forget that everything must have a beginning. . The following is the result of the pell: - Shanks, 309; Kinross, 245. Majority for Shanks, 59.