CITY COUNCIL ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 5564, 7 January 1881, Page 1

CITY COUNCIL ELECTION.

The polling for a City Councillor for High Ward in the room of Ct Robb (elected Mayor) wsb held yesterday, at the Garrison Hal], Scarcely any interest waa taken in the contest, and the result seemed to be a foregone conclusion. v hortly after six o'clock the Returning Officer (Mr Sfcronaeh) announced the result as foilowß : Arthur Scoullar .. .. ..601 Henry J. Walter .. .. ..325 Majority for Scoullar .. .. 275 There were two informal vote*. Mr Scoullar, in addressing those aFsetnbled, said this waa his first appearance before the ratepayers soliciting their suffrages, and he waa a novice at pub! c tpeaking. He wished, however, to return them his sincere thanks for the distinguished position he had that day been placed in, acd ne hoped by his action in tne Council to merit on a future occasion an equally tubstantial token of their favor. He had gone into the contest with the determination, if elected, to take an independent position in. the Council; for he, like the rest of the ratepayers, had been pained to read the reports of the Bcanea which had recently taken place ; indeed, it was on reading the last report that he had first thought of standing. Another matter he wished to refer to waa the municipal indebtedness. The Corporation now had a total indebtedness of tomething like 11600,000, for which was paid every year, by way of interest, between L 33.000 and L 34.000. He would go into the Council determined by economy and retrenchment to attempt to lessen the buid;a of rates to the citizens. He was obl'ged to them for the distinguished position in which he was placed, and without depreciating his opponent, he belitved, had he been in the field a week or fortnight earlier, his majority would have beea even more substantial.— (Applause.) Mr Walter Baid that so far as he was concerned he had scarcely expected anything else, for he had put forth no effort. The election had not cost him a single sixpence, and he had not tried to gain votes in any way. In Mr Scoullar the citizens would have an honest representative, whose position would enable him to be independent in his action in the Council. He wished to say that in this election he had not hid a contest with Mr Scoullar alone. He had previously mentioned a "diabolical craw" as being opposed to him, He did not now hesitate to say that in this contest he bad been opposed by that diabolical and unprincipled crew. He said it fearlessly, becaure he eould prove it. There were some people who occupied the position of municipal and social Butlers who should never have been placed in that position. They were men who were continually prostituting the position placed in their hands. In regard to what Mr Scoullar said about economy, he thought that gentleman wonkl find wheL m the Counoil that there was now very little room for retrenchment. He was really indifferent as to the resul\ He had served the City faithfully and. to the beat of his ability. No man could say of him that during the ten or eleven years he had been in public life he had attempted to serve a friend, punish a foe, or serve his own ends. He would now be able to give his time to his own busineee, and it would have been better for him to have done so in the past.