KAIAPOI POLL.

Press, Volume XXIV, Issue 3220, 27 December 1875, Page 3

KAIAPOI POLL.

> The official declaration of the polling for the Kaiapoi' district for a member for the ■ General Assembly "was made at the Court House on Friday, at 10 a.m. About a dozen persons'weT'e present. The returning officer (C. Whitef oord, Esq*) said all he had to do was to notify the result of the recent contest for that district for the General Assembly. At the announcement of the state of the poll oh Tuesday he stated Mr Bowen's majority was 41, but on comparing the statements of the poll taken at the different stations, said he would give the official declaration to-day. On looking over therolls be had ascertained that one elector's vote had been given twice; two ballot papers had been issued to one person, or someone had personated an elector of the same name, one vote being given at Rangiora and the other at Kaiapoi booths for Mr Beswick. It ; was necessary to inquire into this, but deducting the vote given the total numbers polled were—for Bowen, 335; for Beswick, 292; majority, 43. He had therefore to declare Charles Christopher Bowen duly elected to represent the Kaiapoi district in the General Assembly. Mr Beswick—Was the vote of one Bobirfson Atkinson refused at Rangiora ? The Returning Officer—l cannot say. Mr Beswick—lt was tendered and "refused. He had'attended here because he thought it I would have been discourteous for-him not to do so, to thank those who had worked bo hard for him, as well as to remove an impression that he intended to go into private life,'and not come forward again. What he meant was that he would not come forward again so far as thia district was concerned, ; but he would not be precluded from coming forward for another. A votß'Of thanks to the returning officer, proposed by Mr Beswick, terminated the pro;ceedings.