THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1901.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11636, 25 April 1901, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 1901.

The Auckland municipal elections are over. Dr. J. Logan Campbell has been chosen Mayor by a majority of four to one. As far as the Mayoralty is concerned, the results are highly satisfactory. They are particularly indicative of the feeling of the city when we consider that our Mayor-elect sturdily ) efussd to take any steps whatever to secure his election other than to place himself in the hands of his friends, that he vetoed the usual canvassing and insisted that such must come to him as the unsolicited expression of the regard of his fellow citizens. This generous inaction might alone account for a mush smaller poll thai) was cast, but the peculiarity of' the situation has been the general acceptance of the idea that Dr. Campbell's return was completely assured, and that it was really unnecessary to vote for him excepting as a compliment. The compliment was decidedly paid. In the East and North Wards, 'where there were no council-contests, and where the Mayoralty question stood alone, the citizens expressed a high testimony to the worth of the chosen candidate. For interest in civic concerns unfortunately means a very great deal in Auckland. In 1699, when we had to decide the question of the £100,000 loan, only 895 burgesses took the trouble to vote for it and only 77 against itthis in the whole City of Auckland. Yesterday in the East- and North Wards alone 777 citizens gave the time and the trouble to take part in a vote which they all regarded as a merely formal requisition and thereby overwhelmed the scanty 74 votes which wexe all that the canvassing opposition could there bring to the poll. In the whole city only 868 votes were cast on the Freeman's Bay lean proposal. And though it is very true that both the loan polls above referred to were taken upon the limited special roll of the old voting system, while the Mayoralty vote was taken yesterday upon the general roll of a somewhat broader 'system, yet ratepayers are generally supposed to be more interested in serious financial questions than the average municipal voter is in any matter. Ws have to remember the civic indifference to properly appreciate the meaning of the Campbell vote. It betrays a deeper interest than is superficially indicated, even by the sharp and emphatic majority of 2,622.

lii thus settling the Mayoral question Auckland has mails a very important step in preparing to give a fitting welcome to the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, who have at last left the Eurasian Continent and are steaming now towards Australasian waters. In a few weeks they will land on our New Zealand shores, here at Auckland. Simple will our city seem to them, as we know well, for they will come to us from the stateliest ports of the Empire and fresh from the great cities in which our Australian brethren have centred their trade. But they will have an understanding of what our city is ? and with what energy New Zealand has risen to her proud place among the loyal States of the free Empire of Britain, when they are greeted at our wharf by our chief magistrate and know that he set foot here, on that very beach, not merely as a pioneering settler, but in the vanished epoch when the Maori was tho unchallenged possessor. Dr. Campbell has been selected so peremptorily and clecLed so enthusiastically because he is typical of Auckland, and thereby of New Zealand. He has been active in our settlement since its ery birth, since its very inception, familiar with our country when it lay, savage, and heathen, in the v,'haling seas. His long life touches five reigns, stretching back to the gi eat- great - grandfather 01 our Prince. He can bid them welcome as no other man can or will in the future. Remembering what he has seen on Waitemata, they will know that our present growth is indeed an earnest of wonderful things to be.

Yesterday's municipal elections were the first that have taken place under the new Act. The alterations most noticeable are the readjusted wards and the householder roll. The defunct roll bore 8471 names, being 4555 ratepayers, 33 freeholders and 3883 residents. The new roll contains 10,086 voters. Of these 7065 were registered in the contested wards, where 3584 went to the polls in the Mayoralty election, or just- over 50 par cent. This percentage compares favourably with previous pollings. Grafton Ward gave the heaviest poll, 1179 out of an enrolment of 2081, or over 50 per cent. It is, of course, impossible to say just what effect upon the ordinary ward election spirit the new roll and the new .boundaries may have had. Let us hops ihat the interest; shown will increase and not diminish At the previous municipal elections, those of September last, only the old Karangahape Ward was contested, and 753 votes cast, the knowledge that the Council would be dissolved in a few months doubtless depressing interest. In yesterday's ward elections, Ponsonby retained its old

members by dec-icied majorities, while Grafton also returned three ex-councillors with one change in the personell of its trio and a narrow margin between the third and fourth contestants. The South "Ward made a greater alteration, aud ■t, returns show an exceptional divergence of opinion on the part- of the" voters as to the candidates whom they considered most likely to reflect credit upon them. In the Mayoralty result it is unquestionable that a full poll would only have swollen Dr. Campbell's . majority ; but m the ward results it wo'-Id certainly be interesting to know what is the opinion of those who stayed away from the poll. In every contested ward those who failed to vote had the elections in the hollow of their hands. Would they have confirmed or altered the present results, or would they have chosen, in any instances, different councillors 1 But whatever they would nave done, the Auckland City Council is constituted afresh and for two years.