TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1692, 19 May 1866, Page 2

TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Riccauton Yards.—Messrs. Burnell and Co.'b, weekly sale will take place on Tuesday next instead of Thursday as advertized, in consequonce of the latter being the anniversary of the Queen's birthday, Magisterial—At the Resident Magistrate's Court, Christchurch, yesterday, George M'Curdy, charged with being drunk and incapable, was fined 5s j and Edmund Banks, charged with breach of the Cattle Trespass Ordinance, was discharged, as it was proved that he was not legally responsible for the trespass | Robert Taken, who was convicted of the offence, was fined £1 in his stead.

Provincial Government Gazette.— From the Provincial Government Gazette of the 18th inst, we glean the following ; All the land, 33 feet in width on either side of the line of telegraph poles from the top of Arthur's Pass to the town of Hokitika, exclusive of freehold land and reserves previously made is withdrawn from the West Canterbury Gold Fields District and is reserved ; the Governor's assent is declared to have been given to the North Avon Bridge and Road Diversion Ordinance. The Gazette closes with two notices under the Debtors and Creditors Acts respecting the petitions of iGeorge and James Reynolds, brickmakers, and of Benjamin Lyons and Albert Napthali Prince, Steeplechase Acceptances and Entries. —Owners of horses are reminded that accep-' tances for the Provincial Handicap, and entries lor the Selling and Scurry Steeplechases, must be in the hands of the lion, sec, at Barnard's Repository, by 8 o'clock on Monday evening. Attention is called, by advertisement, to due care being taken in naming the age and price of horse, and colours of rider, as a fine may be inflicted for negligence in so doing. The public are also informed that the only access to the excellent line of country laid out is through the gate of Mr. J. btace, Berwick farm, foot of Cashel street, in whose, roomy yards accommodation is being made for any number of horses and vehicles.

The Town Hall.—ln consequence of the body of the Town Hall being so crowded on Thursday evening List at Mr. Lance's meeting, a number of persons took their places in the gallery above the platform. What we desire to call attention to is the fact that the middle portion of the gallery was'observed by several persons to be scarcely able to bear the unusual weight which it then had to sustain. We trust something will be done to strengthen the supports before that portion of the hall is again opened to the public. We would suggest also at the same time that something should he done to improve the platform. The railing in front of it is so weak that it gives way to a very slight pressure and it has no guard at the back. Although we trust that a scrimmage similar to that which' took place on ; Thursday evening, will not again occur in the Town Hall, yet perhaps these improvements might be desirable on other grounds. Llnc6ln DisTßicT.-Mr. A. C.'Knight, who has lately come forward as a candidate to represent'this district in the Provincial Council, addressed a small portion of the electors at the' Lincoln School-room, on May 16. Mr. J. Murray having been called to the chair, briefly introduced Mr. Knight, who spoke on the various topics of general and localinterest now before the public. With reference to pre-emptive rights, he was of opinion that the existing pre-emptives should not be interfered with, and that pre-emptives should be granted as heretofore for improvements, but that when a pre-emptive was challenged the run-holder should be compelled to purchase the "whole of the acreage challenged, the ordinary notice being given. As to-emigration, he 1 thought a carefully selected number of females, and a few married couples, should be sent output that single men should not at present be introduced, He opposed the .borrowing of any further sums of money for the carrying oh'of.'the public works; and said that private companies, should be encouraged to .construct the railways, the Government guaranteeing a. certain per centage on their outlay. He de-' precated the manner in which the present contract.for the,pouthern Railway had, been let, and thought that tram-ways should; made to various parts of the province, so 'as to thoroughly open it up. He, thought that whilst some of the Road Boards had performed their work well (and the, Lincoln Board as well as any) the Working" expenses were tooheavy, and that the districts suouid be larger. A vote .of 1 " thanks to the chairman brought the meeting, which was a very attentive and orderly one to a elose. Kaiapoi.—On.Thursdaylast some excitement was caused in Kaiapoi respecting, Mr. Lance's meeting in Christchurch the same, evening.. This ,may, to' a J certain extent be attributed to the near approach of the. .election; but jthe main cause was undoubtedly the Bt|renuous efforts niade by one or two/of Mr, Lance's supporters to organize a" ; party, i of electors to proceed to Christchurch to support that gentleman duringl'his address! For some days previous.every endeavour had been made to induce electors and others, by the promise of .a free rule and gratuitous refreshment to become one of the party. Notwithstanding the'tempting 1 bait, however, electors were rather shy of accepting the proposed treat; and, whether it was from lack of supporters o| Mrv, Lance in the town, or that the affair' held forth a promise of rowdyism we are not prepared to', say'; but certain it is that when the hour of starting came round, the fifty | electors wh» had ibeen boastingly announced as going to town were nowhere to be found. Some half-dozen bona fide voters only made their, appearance. Not desiring to risk* censure at head-quarters for such a:scanty muster, the (managers of the affair exerted themselves, in ut manner worthy of a better cause, to increase their number. Every individual met,in the street was therefore immediately pounced "upon, and invited to the ride, with "no questions asked" as to being the possessor of a! vote: No matter whether the man was an elector or not, his presence was all that was desired in order to swell the "imposing" array of Mr. Lance's supporters, and, therefore, any objections made by him on these grounds were useless. As a natural result to such proceedings the cavalcade, when mustered in the three rickety traps provided for the' be-, casjon,, .presented a imost motley and dilapidated appearance. The professional idlers of the town were of course predominant, evidently bent upon enjoying themselves at such! acheap.rate. Their .invariable rejl/ when, taxed .with possessing no vote, being .that! they were quite well aware of. the and: did not care for either candidate/but we're in; for a spree, and meant to enjoy themselves, The party started from the Ferryman's Arms Hotel, ( where they had been previously forti-; fled with gratuitous refreshment to such an,' extent as" to he prepared to dare or do anything for their generous entertainers, At about 3.30 p.m., altogether about twenty persons started from Kaiapoi, of which the better portion were; non-electors. Previous to starting they had been joined by two traps from Woodend,' and two from Rangiora,, each of which contained about a similar quota of non-electors. On their return from Christchurch, at about twelve o'clock, the whole were entertained at Bupper at the Ferryman's Arras Hotel, the landlord of which, judging from the amount of liquor and edibles, &c, consumed, will, n& doubt, in future, years, have cause to remember with atisfaction the election of the Superin-

tendent for Canterbury -iu.-tho year 1866 Conaidorinjf all M olftUmstanccfl, M ekotors separated Itflbtteiimder than could] hayebeen,expected,,l<n i r $ f ~.#[', A '^Bij^9fON. r i|ajco'rre^oAdont l of the Olago i?%;2Vw M Jr4ftcr,t«feVriilg;ito tlio late Miiiiaterial is no lnore gossip! about Hie other exneeM Cabinet appoihtmWs,'except, fi said that it is not altogether unlikely, after all, that Colonel llussell may retain the Native Secretaryship. If such is tlio case, it must arise from one of two causes, viz,, cither those who have been asked to accept it havo declined it (and it is said that Mr. Bell and others have been), or that Colonel Russell has so conducted the duties of his office, as to remove all pretext for seeking a successor. At any rate, I suppose that the appointment is still open, or it would have been gazetted, as is Mr. Patterson's. The" Loan Allocation Commission" are expected to return here on the 23rd, having by that time completed their investigation at Auckland and Taranaki, Thomas Kelly, Esq., of the latter province, has been gazetted a Commissioner in the room of William Thomson, Esq., deceased." Electoral.—Mr. Andrews, one of the candidates for the representation of the city of Christchurch in the Provincial Council, met some of the electors last night, at the Eastern Hotel. Mr. St. Quentin occupied the chair.and in introducing Mr. Andrews to the audience, expressed his hope that the proceedings of the evening would be characterised by good order and good feeling. At the meeting held at the Town Hall, on the previous evening, thejiotous and disgraceful scenes' enacted M cast a stigma upon the conduct of thb'-working men, of which those who did not] wish to see them possessed of. those political privileges, and that influence which they had long considered to be the exclusive right of the upper classes, would not be slow to take advantage. Let those present that evening show by their | behaviour that they were capable of conducting themselves with as much propriety, and of taking their due part in the advocacy of important political questions as those of a higher position in society. Mr. Andrews, who was very cordially received, commenced his address by endorsing the sentiments of the chairman. He gave a sketch of his scheme for enabling the working man to obtain the possession of land by means of a system of deferred payments. He argued that in this colony, if his ideas were r.dopted, and acted upon, not only would erery working man be enabled to acquire a freehold of his own, but the public chest would receive a large addition to its revenue, and that, without injustice being done to any class of the community. He should, if returned to the Council, advocate a system of light tramways throughout the length and breadth of the province. He was convinced that such a scheme would be far preferable to the costly system which was now employed. With reference to education, he was in favour of a well-digested scheme which should put (he blessings of a solid, elementary English education within the reach of the masses of the population. He could not at that moment, give the meeting any idea of a scheme of his own ; the subject was surrounded with difficulties and was one which required earnest and anxious deliberation. He would however promise his warmest support to any project which in his opinion embraced the requirements to which he had alluded. He was most decidedly opposed to the granting of any State-aid to religion. The grand, simple truths of Christianity, which were sufficient in themselves for.' the necessities of the human race, might be inculcated without extraneous political support. Let every man form his own convictions'on the subject, and then act steadily ,and conscientiously upon them. He was in jfavour of manhood suffrage. Everyday's [experience confirmed him in his belief in its 'necessity. Mr. Wakefield had staged that he : was in, favour of a rate-payer's suffrage, but jlie(th's speaker) thought that such a system meet the exigencies of the case. The suffrage was liberal enough as regarded the house-holder in Canterbury, but there were numbers of men fit for the exercise of,, the franchise, but who were debarreiTfrom' voting at elections, because, although in many instances possessed 'of' Considerable"'private means, they were merely lodgers. Something ought to be done to remedy this anomaly. He should also advocate the ballot, because he was sure that the adoption of it would work satisfactorily. A great outcry had been, raised- against its employment, but the alleged reasons did not convince him. "It was un-English; it wis' corjtrary.to the general usage, &c." .But he would ask—lf it was so obnoxious, why was it used in clubs and' other private institutions ?: He should .also support the: Permissive Bill. [ln answer to an elector, Mr. Andrews gave an outline of the principles Of this, Bill, which he-contended'was not so formidable a one as it had been represented to be.] The Permissive Bill, instead of being a tyrannical one, was in reality a safeguard against tyrapny, ,It allowed the licensing of any establishment for the sale of liquor to depend upon the will of the majority of the inhabitants'of any district—two-rthirds of such population instead of upon the possibly arbitrary decision of a magisterial bench. He concluded by expressing his_ willingness to reply to any questions which might be addressed to him, and in answer to some put, he stated that he was in favour of such retrenchment in the expenses of the Government, as would not interfere with the efficiency of the public service. He believed, that by the exercise of the same amount of good management in the conduct of public affairs, as was shown in that of private ones, a great reduction might be made in the expenditure. A large and very unnecessary sura was spent in surveying and mapping out the province; more so than iu other parts of New Zeaiand. Canterbury, on the contrary, ought to cost less in this respect than any other place which he had yet visited. Mr. Dunlop proposed a vote of confidence in Mr, Andrews as a fit representative for the city of Christchurch, which having been seconded was carried. After a vote of thanks to the chairman, the meeting broke up.