UNKNOWN RATION OF POLL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXXII, Issue 5724, 27 January 1876, Page 3

UNKNOWN RATION OF POLL .

Tup official declaration ot the result of the polling foi the election of a member to lepieseiil the <li ti lot of Waitemat.i m the Cieucial Assembly, was made } F esteiday in the Devonport Hall, North .Shoie, at 1 o'clock. There was only a small attendance of eleetois. H. C Bvlm wis, Esq., Returning Officer, sud : llufoic deelanng the result of the poll, T m,i\ bt.itu that m consequence of the late stiutni} it Mis ascertained that theie were 16 rnloimal ballot papeis, which are there fore not counted in the general total .Seven othet' persons voted twice, and one pel son voted tin eo times Seventeen votes, there- j fore, weie deducted fiom the numbers. The rebulfc of the poll thcieforc is— J. S. Madailane, 158; W. J. Hiust, 130; JJr. Lee, 129 ; T Hendcisoii, G7. I therefore declaie -John Sangstci Macffarlane, free holder, ot Jcrmyn-sticet, the duly-elected member for the Mouse of Representatives. Mi. J. H. Mvd'VRL.vxi: then said: As thcie were very few persons present, he might avail himself of that circumstance as an c veuso ior cm tailing his lemaiks, and at all times lie preferred to express himseh hi icily to the point lather than make an un neecssauly lengthy speech. It was hi-. duty to ox pi ess his thanks to the electors ot Waiteniata who lnd by their Aotes seouied the veiy gratifying lcsult that had been brought about. And in doing so, it was especially his dut\ to thank h's hiehds and supporteis, for as ho had not solicited a single vote, he attributed his election to their exei turns lie would also take that opportunity ot thanking his opponents foi the very lnendly and inodei ate manner in which — with one exception — the contest had been conducted. It, dming the heat of the contest, he had said anything calculated to wound the ieclmgs of anyone, he now legrcttcd it. With legaul to that one exception to which he had allude 1, he had intended to comment upon it ; but per haps, m tliis instance, it would be bettir to follow the good old lule, and let bygones be bygones. JS T o doubt a good deal had been said that weie bettor unsaid ; but he would not now recur to it. He hoped that all ill feehng would be buned in ioigutfulne->->, and that those with whom he had dillered in the past would be found in futuie in amity with him. At any tune betoie the meeting of the Assembly he would boglid to lcceive letteis and to consult with the electois of "M aitemata regarding any niattei that was likely to conduce to the advance - ment of the distuct, so that he might be prepared, to advocate it in the House. He w ould further say that at any tune dining his lcpiesentation of \Vaiteniata in the Assembly if his conduct did not meet with the approval of the electois —ot e\cu a ic>pjc 1 1 1 lo immbor of them — he would be pi cp lied to ie->igu his trust into t'len hands, foi he would not continue to hold any portion which he could not fill with satisfaction. lie had been accused ot being a suppoiter of the present Ministiy, but thouyii at one time he was numbeud ■amongst then fi lends, they had done man} acts ot which he entirely disapproved, and of which he had repeatedly complained. 1I< would refer his hearers to a notice in yestcidiy's newspapers. Let any of them lead the *21st section of the Stamp Act, to which tLe l'ie«s ought to call attention, because it wa-> a \ile Act It appciral to him tint if >' pel son died lnsielatne^ oi legatees could not even p ly foi his funeial until they h >d paid the NLiinp Duty on his es late, ami that \\\as only one of a number ot similarly iniquitous clauses. Great difficulty had be. n experienced in the working ot the Act. lie had consulted several mei chants andotheis in buMiie-o, and they condemned the Act ,h unintelligible and unworkable. It appealed to him a most arbitrary and unwoikableAet. If it was only because of that one Act hewould feel it to be his duty to condemn the action of the present Ministry, but they had passed otheis equally bad. He simply made this explanation to show that the statement that he was a suppoiter of the present .Ministry wag unfounded in eonelusion, he again thanked his supporters for returning him. (Applause. ) Mr. AY. J. Hui:sr said he would only detain the meeting a few minutes He was sorry the last speaker had deemed it necessary to refer to the bad taste exhibited by someone m connection with the lite contest, without having given mhho induction that it was not any of the nvo.1 euididates with whom he found fault, because the accusation now lay upon the shouldois of any one of them. He (Mr. Huist) was quit? sure tint Air. M icfarlane ould not point to anything i:i his conduct which would justify a complaint as to his action dining the recc'ii, cL'e'uo'i He felt that i>i the election, as every one of the candidates had announced tha same principles, the contest had vntiuily been decided upon personal grounds, and in having secured the second position, he considered he had good cause to thank those who had supported him, and equally good reason to thank those who had not done so, because Mr. Macfarlauc was a very old re»rdent in that district, and very few men had done more than he for the advancement of the province of Auckland, and though he (Mr. Hurst) occupied thepoaition of a defeated candidate, he was sure that Mr. Macfarl ino's election would be beneficial to the district. The successful candidate had expressed hi* political opinions with no uncertain sound, but though, as ho s I'd, he hid 8 >licited no vote ;, he had very zealous friends who endeavoured to further his interests. He (Mr. Hurst) hoped tha!. if the present system of representation was to exist with benefit to the country, and members were to be returned honestly to represent particular constituencies the sooner the Maoiis were swept off the district rolls the better, because the piesent system was satisfactory to no one, and the Maori vote was simply used to milk candidates ot so much money. He hoped his friend, Mr. Mactarlane, would do his best at Wellington to ha\e the Maoris removed fiom the loll, so that in future there might be fair-play in elections. Ho was quite sine tint one interest, at least, would not suflei I)}' the lcsult ot the election — vi/ , the Tinib n i Floatage Dill : some people called it " log lolling," but he piefeiied the tor im r name. However, he might say, in conclusion, that he entei tamed no animosity against any of his opponent?, and he thanked his supporters and the electois genii, lly for the model ate lvaimcr in which the contest had been conducted. Mr. Mvltahlvne moved, and Mr. Hum seconded, a vote of thanks to the Returning Officer. The Rli'i'rninu Oj-ticer said he had expei leneed much couitcsy from the candi dates and electois dining the whole of the election, and he had to thank Mr. S. Y. Collins, who had been of great assistance t ■> him. There appealed to be an impiession abroad that dm ing a scrutiny as to the lesult of the ballot, the names of lhe electors who had vo l ed were seen, but this was not the case. When a scititiny took place the i oil of the constituency was placed on the table, and the voting papers weie taken out one by one without the name being exposed. If it was found that a vote, beat ing a teitun nurnbci, had voted only at one placj, it was allowed to count, but it, on the other hand, it was found that the vote in respect to that number had been recorded at two places, then, m the presence of the scrutineers, the ballot-box was opened, and turned over, and the numbeis taken out, and the other ballot papcis were not seen Thi' only ballot pipeia fiat were looked at •weie tho-,e that hid been llkgilly lecoided, and they must be sc'u became they must be taken oil the total of the ni' mber foi whom they weie ncoielcd. That was the reason why the billot papers are uumbcied. Because, it they weie not numbered, then the gentlemi n for whom the thiee \otes were lecoided by one person would have had the btnclit of these \otcs The A< t pu>\ rdi'd that .all duplicate ballot panels of the same nniii'inr must be taken out ot the total. Theiefore, in the c.ii?o of the man who voted thiee tnii' 1 , the thiee votes ucio deducted Ho (the Returning Olheei) had thought it neccssaiy to make this explanation to disabuse the public mind ot the

notion that all the names of the peisons who voted were known 11 11,15 a dillerent matter wheie a Pcuhamentaiy Committee was aj pointed. .So far as Ins duty was concerned, the ballot paj>ers weic &e,ilcd up and sent to Wellington, and ho liditwd tiny wcie kept for two be ft ic beiny destioycd. — The meeting then >-c}ui.itod.