The Press. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1876.

Press, Volume XXIV, Issue 3219, 24 December 1875, Page 2

The Press. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1876.

The Otago Daily Times is in raptures over the. result of the election at Dunedin. Our contemporary is anxious to identify himself to* the utmost ex-l tent; with the fortunate winners, and indulges in-repeated and lusty crows of triumph over thj&J Victory of "the " parfy we supported.* . This phrase, however, is hardly-a--correct representation §ff feQta,. ~ The Daily Times may doubtless claim to representative of the , winning party now;T>lit"it cannot claim praise for-faithful adhesion to it when it was les/-Bnc'cessful." L At the "beginning of the struggle-ourr contemporary was an anti-provtriclalist; 1 Sβ' tall 'strong Ministerialist proclivities. Hef supported the Government Bill. -When the Abolition _ 8i11.... made _ its, ~ap-. pearance He -was AoM f in praise of it as an admirably well-drawn, well-considered measure, and, rising to the- pitch of - yojyed-that there was not a man in Otago mot look forward with satjsfactiop To Uhe prospect of its becoming- law.i-.Hev ,began to rat, to be sure, as soon.as 1 public opinion seemed to ■ be inclining jin another direction; and we_admit I that his loyalty,; to party ■ jhae been beyond all question "since he isatMed himself that it- was 'iin 'the) jmajority. But to boast b4?ing always; supported" it is a littler too Strong.' Our 'contemporary's present fervour in the cause is imdeniable,* but it is of comIparatively recent flate. Jle shows abundance df zeal, ,biit it is ; of the jkind which proverbially ~ denotes : a convert. His and lair of boisterous ' delight are in amusing cotitrast ';*; the depressed tone ap]d averted looke that distingiiished him in earlier dayi.. Indeed, amid all the exuberantly festive, array in which be'celebrates the glories bf the victors, it werb;not atniae if a little sackcloth and ashes > were exhibited in token of remorse for previous opposition. - . . '■■ ' . : The Daily Times professes to regiEUpd the defeat bf Mr Eeynolds as " a great '/blow to the , "Well, |hey have lost a vbjt;o, a^l l ' pjerhapfiTa Colleague; but, pome-loeses muat have been looked; ftto A. 'Ministry-can seldom hope to dut of a general;;:€>itrction« Mr Andrew Mr Stput v in the new/Parlramentiiindet.'any cir4umstance.Sj ; eo'', A -IHAt 1 ° l their return makes ixb , But %a$ came these two men Vto. for Dunedin 2 They had pledged themselves iadii poeiKv«ly r tßat in- : qucement. lefidr, thjpn) r to desert , "cokstituenfs * Chalmers and GfaveJEßheai:n% twhat irresistible i eoessity were they dwven at the last iioment' mto flaOTant breach of fki|;h ? it is were .assured 'wiat. their nomination- wae the i obly means of. securing Mr. Beynolds' ; After all, thien, \ the defeat L of Mr. Reynolds "was do such easy, niatter. ; The' Provineialists ' had to > bi-ing out %\mr 'greatest guns, their very doughtiest champions,:in erderto i gpt the bettetpif / how came Mr. Jjhe {] tric^| r d ,j£ ...is.; niot long since ne was fightiing despe- j rately against - Mr: j eiarn, when .xetuxnTwas i regarded as a glorious victory foVthe i C pposition. /W&at! iloing on *he| j Dunedin side witlf i« his former _fo&f n l ! have i WiJldwing of prm- • cg)les somißwhere. when '■■• l - jWo' sucn determined opponents could stand 3 together on the Bame ticket.- Wβ * observe, too, that the Dflily \Timss piits : .climax tp r its 7. elecjipnal flouriehea : with, a rstroke that ; to j any but a Dunedin reader, deprives them ofall their force. Mr.Beynotds,' ; it? says, lost his elee|d<w{ v simply be- ** pause lib had' committed the; inex- v " piable crime of attempting to crnsh j " Otago." So that, at the l>est, this was p a purely provincial aflEair; ; It was » an expression of public feeding excited ® by al>elief that the rights or liberties | of the people were in danger. The ti interests that were so vehemently con- h tended for were 1 those, not of the pctapje, * biit of the province.-The oppositioa £ raised in Dunedin was just of the local 8I narrow kind which any G-overiiment n thpt undertook the task of abolifcion must have foreseen, in, the action n of: Mr Macandrew and the Dunedin Provincialist League we trace the exer(a4ns of that *'very iargp v lrtread-and- ?■ [ * butter'" interest connected. - • with " a very large interesti.that-will die " Very hard indeed," Which (especially - « ". in some bf the capital toWris of the o tf jprovtnces a, ) Mr* Stafibri warhed J Ministers that they must be .prepared to encounter.::/. r:;f ■ •■:■-' v, : ; To the flood of highAfalutin , nonsense "W that waa poured forth on this occasion: E we' euppose, ,be.indulgent. * Oor in,: X)!anedin have g inherited the Victorian: propensity for a " blowing," and* ; -«f f h a more K 'than (i f*l; r was to be iPutife as apditor 2 noj; naif crazy with excitement^ ?■ it -^ When we are dunedin f electron wa&aj triumph for whole s 7t|a« %

" Zealand," we cannot help recalling what took place on the very next day. On Monday, Dunedin returned three members of the Mr. Lerfiach ie to be /On theelectors of restored the. balance by returaing afcoiitionistß. One of the latte?—the jpne highest on the-pdlli ie thesaosfc thoroagh-going abolitionist in the colony; the second is a member of the Government. The same day a second Minister was returned at Kaiapoi. The reverberation certainly nevftr .β^itf r)i\pftl _acroea- theWaitaki;,. we doubt -indeed whether its echoes rolled even as far as_ tDramaryf"of TWaitpuirtT., ~.^Whatever. Dunedin ? njayi . thinks iOhjistciurjbh jJoefl-notLjeonaidfix the abolitioa-of~the> provinces a sin. And look to the ia- sumbere ! In Dunedin] the first of the'suijcessful candidates polled the first candidate polled 1059 votes, and the second 992. Id Dunedin, the election* was conducted with immense energy, with the most strenpous ex-. ertiona of an organised . League, and amid an excitement which, according to the telegrams, was so great as to suspend the whole course of business In Chnstchurch. there was no excitement at allt People went about their i business as usual, and, except for the : number of placarded cabs hurrying to and - fro, a- stranger- w«u4d riot have Juiown that an election was going on. Ye% -notwithstanding the most energetic efforts of * his friends and of the League; the foremost candidate in Dunedin could poll-no mor© votes than would have just sufficed to put him third ori &c list for QKristchurcK, a clear, Mfßichard son. The Daily Times accepts -tW Banedin election aa ,f an emphatic disapproval "on the part of the leading consti- •'•' tuency of the colony, of the recent f'actionj \oiiW& aCinMry)" , Well, if Danedin disapproves of that action, Christchurch I has as emphatically endorsed it. ,as for th.c claim ,of Dunedin to leading constituency in~the colony, what ate we_ to say to it in the of the« aj)9ve figures ? One of Jiwo things is evident. If Dunedin'p claim to priority is well founded, far the greater number of r tnfe_ ,electors must have kept away from the ■polling-place, proving themselves quite indifferent as to whether Otago was "crushed" or not. If, ori the other hand, the Dunedin electors did their best, then it is plain that Ohristchurch casts much the Jarger andr Ghrieiichnrch, not Danedin, is entitled tb-be called the leaning ■■■* <s ,*