THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4404, 24 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GENERAL ELECTIONS.

I -Itf) Vll iv','. r. \ i:si ' .•.>!!< •:v jf_ Jajov/ Ijf.' i« f onfosed: state. ofpoliticß,- toimake adiyiaion of the members elected. The most cony.eni-. eat plan, seems ,to us to tlivido'tliem imbo' Centralists and. Oppositionists. .' ■ The, C-on-trillsare those who, might; be counted upon" to support the .present or. someother Government Wcarjyjng through the policy ofthe laafc session.: i'TJppa .many important questions, however, irfhicli must ariijo in the next session (they could not unite together. For example, if Mr. Sharp, of Nelson, think* that.the land revenue 'of Otago and Canter-, bury ought to be made.'colonial property, while the members from those provinces are; of course, of, a contrary.;opinion. . All those, however, whom we have' set down, ias .i Centralists are directly op-, posed ,to any scheme of; Separation or of Federal Government. Amongst the Opposition, ; on the othervside, there is also the irreconcileable difference as to the land fund, and | one or two of them would also probably be. opposed to any of the schemes of the Federal Government which have been proposed. , The following are the returns :— Central. Opposition. Christchobch. E. Richardson ~ .. K. G J. Stevens ~ .. W. S. Moorehouse Dcnedin .. .. .. ..J. Macandreir j, .. .. .. BL. Stout ~ .. W. J. M. Laraach Tuapeka .. J. C. Brown Aookiamd Wbsi .. .. .; .Sir G. Grey ~ .. P. Dignan Nelson .. O. Curtis .. .. .. J. dharp .. .. W. Rolleston Avow. Kaiapoi .. C. C. Bowen WJH.XJNQTON .. E. Pearce „ '.. G* Hunter.. ' Eden.—We are given to understand* that Mr. Carleton proposes to address the electors of Eden on Tuesday next, at Newmarket, at 3 p.m.; at Panmure, on "Wed-, nesday, at 7 p.m.; and on Thursday, at the Whau, at 7 p.m. His desire had been to": take all the. three' main portions' of the district before Thursday, the day of nomination; but it was decided, upon consideration, that. *f Boxing Day," by immemorial prescription devoted' to amusement," ciught not to be trenched upon, i Thames.—Yesterday's/ Thames Advertiser has the following:—" It will be seen from our : telegrams that Sir, George Grey was. ctyly returned for City West yesterday," in company with,.Mr. , Dignan, without .any Opposition. was,'expected that Sir George' Vould issue an address to the electors of the Thames immediately after his nomination: and return for City West, as he had stated, that if chosen one of the representatives for this, district he would elect,,to sit for the thaujes.. The following telegram on the Subject was forwarded to the Thames yesterday':— 1 I am so over-worked that I could hot, for some days at least,' enter, upon the fatigue o£ an election.. I feel most grateful, to the constituents who would return me, for your.district. My earnest desire is to do the best I can for the public good. City Wiest has/kindly elected me. The, constituents themselves must decide where they desire me to serve, and what they think is the best, the general welfare, of the place. , I phall always, be thankful to the Thames for.their consideration.—Q. fiitßi.'," .In commenting on this telegram the same paper says , ''.The telegram of , Sir George Grey is so ambiguous that the matter is still left in an - unsettled state, is not . fair to the Thames electors/' It appears that Mr. Firth haa also,,.been: aslsed; to contest the j Thiames. Yesterday's Advertiser states :— ] " A number of gentlemen took advantage of Mr. Firth's arrival yesterday, with a quantity of. salmon ova, to. ask him to become a candidate for the representation of the, Thames in the General Assembly. He thanked the gentlemen, but said that he had no intention at present of going into politics. He had already declined the offer of several constituencies."

Franklin. — Mr. Hamlin, Mr. Luak, Mr. May, Mr. Woodward, and Mr. J. Crawford, addressed a meeting at the Public Hall, Fatumihoe, on Monday evening last. Mr. Crispe was moved to the chair, and after | giving a short account of the various candidates called on Mr. Lusk to but as that gentlaman pleaded Hamlin took the lead, and in a moderate but' telling" speech stating his views upon the various political movements of the day, and highly commended himself to the electors. Wlr. Lusk then entered the' haU, and was called upon to proceed, which he did, in rather a long speech, giving a statistical account of the cotony, and the prospects as at present constituted, and what might he expected from Separation. Mr. Lusk dwelt largely on statistics. At the termination of a speech extending beyond an hour, Mr. Kavanagh asked if Mr. Lusk would take a billet, or, in fact, any post under the Government if offered him. After considerable indecision and fencing, Mr. Lusk stated that although not going in for that purpose, cases might arise in which his services were really required in the formation of a Ministry, in which case he should not refuße. Mr. Lusk distinctly stated that upon a Separation of the colony, the Northern Island would enjoy an income of £400,000t0 be used on public works. Mr. H. Crispe then asked Mr. Lusk i£ he possessed any qualification, and what ? as that for which he was placed on the roll had been out of his possession for ten or twelve years.—Mr. Lusk declared that he had other qualification, but could not name them. — Mr. C. Kavanagh then asked Mr. Lusk a question of local importance to them all, — the hall in which they were meeting was built by subscription on Government reserve, and in a measure subsidised by the General Government, who contributed £60 towards tee building, in consideration of having a Militia office attached to it for their use; but that now Major Lusk, as officer commanding the district, assumed unlimited control over the building, and wished to ignore any power by the committee elected by the subscribers, —he wished to know, if elected, would Mr. Lusk look into this matter, and sea that it wa3 put upon a right footing?— Mr. Lusk said this was the first time he had heard of the affair, but he certainly should say that, although the Government had -a Eartnership in the hall, he thought it should e placed in .the hands of trustees, two elected by the subscribers and one appointed by the Government.—Mr., Lusk had a fair Joseph May then came forward, *anfl produced such a voluminous amount of documentary evidence, that, at that late hour of the night (11 o'clock), it almost frightened the meeting, burffMr. May merely touched the most prominent cases, to prove the great importance of maintaining the colony as a whole. Mr. May was very well received by the meeting. — Mr. C. Kavanagh put the same question to Mr. May that he had put to Mr, Lusk, respecting Major Luak's arbitrary and tyrannical action respecting their pubic hall, aud asked if he would look into the matter if returned ! Mr. May-said, decidedly it should not be left in the hands of one person, and he would, if returned, have it investigatecLVfMr. Woodward, who was received with mud cheers, bravely defended himself against the splenetic attacks made upon him by Mr. Lusk; and evidently carried the meeting with him. Although a warm supporter of Sir George Grey as a leader, he felt bound to scatter to the winds the wild and visionary calculations of Mr. Luak, which merely had a tendency to deceive. Mr. Woodward, in vindicating himself against the charge of having changed his opinions, admitted a change, which «v«ry honest man open to conviction was bound te make, when strong evidence was brocght before him of the importance of securing the most valuable and disinterested services of Sir; G. Grey as a leader, and he (Mr. W.) acted in a thoroughly independent manner, as nothing I would induce him to;take place or office. —His political views seemed highly approved by the meeting ;in fact, Mr. Woodward has ■ mostdecidedlybecome a favourite in the difltrictisJlr. J. Crawford then came before the meeting, but it being now past 1 o'clock, he Mufinan himself wisaly to a very f<rtr re.

' marks: -AT vote of thanks was movedby Mr." seconded,, by, Mr, Jam«s J pPlnlay, to., those. candidates.. who,,had ad-i Mr. liuk havang,moved a rote to the,,chairnissC ~the meeting brokeup at about 2; o'clock in the morning v ;